GARC
by UsedtoEatAssThriceaMonth
Summary: AU. The world is an unforgiving place, especially when you've never explored outside of your village, and now your mini-map is tiny. Also because there are complicated game functions and maybe, just maybe, the Gamer was just a glorified ability. (Under Revision)
1. Hey!

**Aura-Trained Mother!**

 **Lv 37**

 **Juniper Arc**

My mother was Juniper, in every definition of the word. Her pupils were a Juniper green, and her sclera was as white as the berry itself. Accompanied by tanned skin and the long, black hair she grew after retiring from combat, there was no better candidate for a human manifesto of mother nature itself. Well, that is, unless your idea of mother nature was a naked woman made of dirt and leaves for hair, or… A fat African-Valean woman with a green dress and fairy wings.

I will realize that this was not the best time to think about these things, and I… Have no idea.

 **[Skill]: Sweeping-(Passive)-(Rank I) LV 1, 34%**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Long ago, when man was born from filth, they didn't know how to sweep. Maybe because there was no floor to sweep. But one day, man, which is both offensive and shows how society is degrading to women even if they are nearly 2/3s of our population, found the need to remove those pesky leaves from their back-yard. That skill slowly evolved to what you see today, a staple of common houseworking.**

 **10% Chance for floor to look nice**

 **Remove 50% accumulating dust**

Yep, you got that right. I got this… what do I call it… Ability? While sweeping the floors of the Arc home! I had to give credit to whoever wrote this description, though. Humorous.

 **Oh, honey. The Gamer stems from your own mind. Your brain and soul merely wrote these things subconsciously!**

Oh, of course. The Gamer. I refuse to call it that… It was stupid. And was a soul even real? Weren't those things, like, fake?

…

And it was also part of my mind! That was good to know, since I tried having a conversation with it a minute ago. Was creepy to see that it also liked bunnies and emeralds...

 **Sweeping-(Passive)-(Rank I) LV 1, 80%**

As excited as I was to try this thing out, I had to wait until I finished. My dad got thrown into a lake when he skipped dish duties, and Navy (pronounced Nah-vee, thank you very much) had her ice-cream taken when the laundry was not done. Geez, she cried for weeks. I almost tripped as I finished up, unfortunately not levelling up. I quickly escaped the eyes of my mother, for she most likely was concerned about my quietness today. Funny enough, when I first got the **Jaune Arc Lv1** sign float above my head, and the popups, I quickly froze, trying to find reaction in mom. Well, after 5 seconds, she walked right through it. Fuck, that was scary.

 _Whaaaaaat waassss thaaattt_ _ **YOUNG MAN**_

I shivered at the memory of my mother's voice, when I first publicly trash talked a few noobs in Call of Remnant, but that was a bitch ass game anyways, even after mom took my games away.

Must not remember…

Must not remember…

The day was gone, and now only a sliver of moonlight shone its way in. I don't know why we didn't turn on lights in the living rooms, but I was pretty used to it. I strolled down the various parts of the complicated home, and passed by the second TV room. There was the usual: blue couch, slightly outdated television, and that old water dust appliance I asked for on my 8th birthday.

Still don't know what I was thinking back then.

 **It's Pronounced Nah-vee, not Navy!**

 **Lv 12**

 **Navy "Creme" Arc**

I know, Creme? We all do weird shit when we are young. Navy's long brown hair laid harmlessly on the couch, growing quite low… She wasn't very tall, for a being almost two years older than me. Her blue shirt was just a shade darker than the blue of the couch, and the soon-to-be 14-year-old laid cross-legged, with her scroll set to full brightness. There were melted popsicles scattered around her and under the couch, but don't tell mom.

She caught my stare and returned it with words. "Ugh, Jaune, get out."

I stuck my tongue out at her, while picking up the stray popsicle stick and wiping the floor with a tissue.

Fuck, no skill. 1/10 gamer ability.

Well, there was the question of how she stayed fit while consuming so much ice-cream, but man, if I ever went on a sugar diet, I had to know. "JAUNE, GET OUT OF THE **ROOM**!" She screamed.

I hurried out. I really need to stop thinking about things so much.

Now that I was comfy in my room, with a few books, nearly no posters, and of course, the fabled closet, I _had_ to check out this thing. I could barely contain my excitement. What if there was combat? What if there was…

Alright Jaune, no more "ifs."

 **Yeah, no more "ifs".**

There was the question of my sanity, maybe my mind collapsed under my imagination to provide a way of life, but damn, it felt real. Maybe if this was just a dream, then I could forget it, so I don't try to drown myself in imagination when I wake up and my normal life feels depressing.

"Ummm… Level?"

 **Level 1-(0/100)**

 **0%**

 **Effects: N/A**

So there were effects? Maybe XP boosts or something? But, if there was really level, then… there had to be a character sheet. Yeah, this felt RPG enough to have one. Gamer ability, right?

"Character… Sheet?"

 **Plain and Simple**

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Lv1**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Job: N/A**

 **HP: 100/100**

 **AP: N/A**

 **SP: 100/100**

 **STR: 8**

 **DEX: 4**

 **END: 7**

 **INT: 8**

 **WIS: 2**

 **LUC: 5**

 **Age: 12**

 **Height: 1.61M (lol fuck imperial)**

Huh, so I wasn't dreaming… Still had to test it when I wake up tomorrow, though. Other than that… I seemed average. Well, my sister… wait, my sister was **11 levels** above me? Did she have some kind of combat training, or won an award or something?

And yes, gg, imperial sucks. Go suck a dick, Mistralians (and Vacuoans) (and Menagerians).

8 strength? Ah, I shudder to think what everyone else with a higher level must have. I tapped around the menu, finding nothing really special. Just basic info, really. I felt insulted slightly at the 'plain and simple', but that was probably how all stories started, amiright? And wisdom 2… boy, there needs to be a way to improve that.

"Inventory?"

I was startled when that blue box came up. It was 4 by 5, horizontally of course. I picked up my book of firearms, and carefully placed it in the first box, after seeing no way to expand it, other than move the 2-dimensional object around.

The book disappeared, soon appearing as a square icon. I tapped the box, finding the book in my hands, though I barely managed to catch it.

I played around with it, sending several objects to send up. My alarm clock, however, seemed to pause when inside… So the thing froze time while inside it?

 **For understanding basic functions of the game, here's a free STAT point on yourself!**

What? Oh, right, it was my "soul and mind". My dad was a firm believer in NOT believing in the soul, hence why he discouraged being involved with dust or military stuff. Apparently, and I quote "those idiots are fucking around thinking about weird montra pendragon soul zen shit". I had no idea what he meant, and I didn't intend to ask, since he was always angry when talking about the topic.

He did make some sort of sense. I mean, did you actually think something like a soul was real? The universe was obviously working with correct and real laws and _science_ , not the weird soul stuff everyone seemed to believe.

Right?

Right?

I didn't fucking care. This ability made no sense, but special abilities I saw the hunters had were no sense too. Maybe they were science gifted to us? It had to make scientific sense _somehow_.

Well, stat point on the houuuuseeee.

 **STR: 8**

 **DEX: 4**

 **END: 7**

 **INT: 8**

 **WIS: 2**

 **LUC: 5**

Ah, what to invest… WIS was obviously the lowest, but did I really need it? Did I need to become smarter? Shrugging, I clicked on my lowest stat point.

 **WIS score: 2**

 **AP Regen: N/A+**

 **Faithful Charisma: 2+**

 **Spiritual Understanding: 2+**

 **Experience Judgement: 2+**

Umm… AP level was the locked option on the sheet. What was it? Mana? Mental health? I had no clue. Seeing the option to unlock it? It would reduce my already rock-bottom WIS score. It was better to have… Charisma. Would be nice to convince the clerk to give me free things, maybe even create a cult…

 **NEW! [Quest]: Cult creation**

 **You've randomly decided to create a cult!**

 **No time limit**

 **Above 6 members**

 **No faith restriction**

 **Reward: ?**

 **YES/NO**

I mashed "no", since I had no intention of ever making a cult. No. Well, that actually reminds me of the Tim Jace mass cult-town suicide in a town nearby a good 60 years ago… 987 dead by various methods!

I tapped **Faithful Charisma** once, and the number hopped to 3. I accepted the change, probably stupid because I didn't check out anything else.

My WIS score stayed the same. I mean, if this was how things worked, then technically I didn't have to care about the average score, right?

 **That's right, honey. For you, the score is merely to make ya look better.**

Yay, that was a relief taken off my shoulders. Well, this also meant I had to work more of different aspects, assuming I could get more of them.

 **For understanding stats, here's another point on the house!**

Poooooiiiiiinnnnntttt oooooooonnnnn ttthhhheeeee hooouuuuusssseeeee!

I checked out DEX this time, for it was my lowest physical score.

 **DEX score: 4**

 **Upper Body: 4**

 **Lower Body: 4**

 **Hand Agility: 4**

 **Reaction Time: 4**

Well, that was really just it. I had to get something more noticeable… something that I could see evidently. I got to my feet and started doing pushups, and immediately my SP bar drained at an embarrassing pace. Seriously, I lasted, like, 12 bad ones in a row before dying… Shit, need more training!

 **END score: 7**

 **Inner Endurance: 7+**

 **Limb Endurance: 7+**

 **Body Endurance: 7+**

Wow, this was getting complicated. Well, was anything ever supposed to be simple? I supposed inner endurance was how my organs were able to endure? I had no intentions of testing it. Nothing noticeable here…

I exited to the menu to find:

 **Point Assignment**

 **Jaune Arc**

 **HP: 0+**

 **SP: 0+**

 **STR** **score: 8**

 **Limb/Hand: 8+**

 **Chest/Back/Hip: 8+**

 **END** **score: 7**

 **Inner Endurance: 7+**

 **Limb Toughness: 7+**

 **Body Toughness: 7+**

 **DEX** **score: 4**

 **Upper Body: 4+**

 **Lower Body: 4+**

 **Hand Agility: 4+**

 **Reaction Time: 4+**

 **INT** **score: 8**

 **AP Capacity: N/A+**

 **Logical deduction: 8+**

 **Learning/Memory: 8+**

 **Application: 8+**

 **WIS** **score: 2**

 **AP Regen: N/A+**

 **Faithful Charisma: 3+**

 **Spiritual Enlightenment: 2+**

 **Experience Judgement: 2+**

 **LUC** **score: 5**

 **Pheromone Charisma: 5+**

 **Autocorrect: 5+**

 **Critical Damage: 5+**

 **Critical Chance: 5+**

Oh, so there was an upgrade menu… Holy shit that was a lot to take in. Still, though, I assigned a point to SP capacity. Wait, why was it zero… Oh, nevermind. I never "improved" the score anyways, so...

 **SP: 101/105**

Well, shit. This game better give me a LOT of points, or i'm killing myself. _Not funny, Jaune!_

I did it again, and this time, I did like, half an extra push up. Wait… just to see how quickly this levelled up, I started doing… You guessed it, pushups. After almost ten minutes of pushing up and down, I got my results.

 **Due to your short workout, +1 to STR score (one more point for both traits)**

 **Due to that, +1 to (END Limb Toughness) and (END Body Toughness)**

 **After that, +1 to (DEX Upper Body)**

 **Whew, +1 to (INT Application)**

Holy fuck, I would only hope the results didn't slow down… God that sounded like a cheesy infomercial. Wait.

Pheromone Charisma?

Autocorrect?

What the fuck was that?

 **Pheromone Charisma: Makes the pheromone you excrete slightly better every time. The higher the score, the higher the chance for living things to do nice things for you.**

 **Autocorrect: The forces above will have a higher chance to help you, sending secret instructions to your body and mind last-second to make you win the day!**

Well, fuck. My ability proved god was real. Well, it said "forces", not "force", so I assumed there was some kind of pantheon.

 **You understood something for once! +1 to (WIS spiritual enlightenment)**

 **Dude! Cool! +1 to (INT Application of Knowledge)**

Ah, I will take these points anyday, goodsir Jaune ['s mind and soul]!

"Skills!" I said.

 **Skills**

 **Sweeping-(Passive)-(Rank I) LV 1, 80%**

 **The Gamer-(Passive)-(Permanent)**

Huh? This skill? I supposed it had something to do with my body, to change it to be more like a game. After all, life was not a game, and STR was not the only factor in the damage of your punch.

 **Yar, ye becometh smarter! +1 to (Logical Deduction)**

Damn, real progress was achieved…

 **[Skill]: The Gamer-(Passive)-(Permanent)**

 **As you are a game character, regular rules no longer apply as much to you! Live life almost like a true game character.**

 **((Sub-Skills))**

 **(Mind): For understanding that you are now living in a game, mental ailments are quickly suppressed, and you will find it easier to stay calm.**

 **(Body): Consume to either instantly restore stats or gain effects. Removal of need for consuming food and water.**

 **(Loot): Gain Loot when completing assigned quests or defeating enemies.**

 **(Soul): Gain XP from completing various tasks to level up and power up.**

Overpowering, anybody? Yes, this would serve as a nice thing in life… I actually had thought of being a game character and all the unrealistic aspects of it. This "system" of mine had decent realism, with stat distribution that actually applied to the various areas of the body. But wait, was this really a skill? Wasn't this like, the core function of the ability? I don't know, it just feels kinda weird to have that as a skill, rather than a function.

 **[The Gamer] reassigned as core function of the game! Access menu [Settings] to find more!**

 **Menu:**

 **Status**

 **Inventory**

 **Abilities**

 **Map**

 **Settings**

The setting?

 **Music: OFF**

 **Subtitles: OFF [English-Valean]**

 **HUD: OFF**

 **HUD Color: Default**

 **Quest Markers: OFF  
Quest Notification: FULL**

 **[About]**

I didn't play with the functions too much, but map, unfortunately, only provided me with areas that I had already explored… meaning almost none. I had never left the town of Ansel. We were quite a distance away from Vale, and frontier towns were disliked by the council, but we made our living, probably having something to do with why the Arc estate was built here.

Most of the land was sold by my grandfather, who didn't quite live up to what his dad had in mind for a glorious family empire. Julius had won the land in the great war for fighting with Vale, which actually had plans to expand much further, with their new guns and post-war economic miracles. Well, since was such a fucking failure anyways, they still, always fucking underestimated the Grimm. You had to always be aware that an army was going to attract more grimm than what was observed in the area…

Fucking morons…

But I liked guns. I first read about them when I was 9, flipped through old war manuals and blueprints, fascinated by the designs. However, It was noticeably wearing off, and I began to be more and more interested in the old-fashioned sword-and-shield hunters.

Wow, a knight seemed to be an even more approachable class than ranger now.

Anyways, now…

I had to sleep.

 **A/N:**

 **IEATAM: Hello, everyone, and welcome to my first story. Let's head straight to the explanations now…**

 **Q-Why is Jaune swearing?**

 **Everyone swears a little, at least in their minds. Jaune's personality is pretty dorky, and occasionally very expressive, but he does express anger, but always Bad-Language free. This is simply because of RWBY's age rating, in which the only swear word other than "damn" or "hell" is "bitch", which has only been said once. His emotion is now suppressed by Gamer's Mind, so the only way he can express confusion and anger is meaningless swearing. Also, I thought Jaune would be a little more outgoing as a younger person, since he looks like someone who faced the most trouble in high school. He's also influenced by trash talking playthroughs… PM or review me if you want to make a change or request.**

 **Q- Okay, now that's been cleared,** _ **what**_ **exactly is this?**

 **A Gamer!Jaune story, except with my own little quirks and changes. Expect more of the unusual, instead of ones where he just picks a different class.**

 **Q- Anything we should be aware of?**

 **No. There is a massive and important AU, which you will see shortly.**

 **Q- I don't have any more questions…**

 **Oh, that's fine. Hey, readers, I'm reaching out I you. Ask questions through either review or PM and I'll answer all of them!**

 **Remember to...**

 **REVIEW!**

 **OC Submissions: I'll take any OC, either by review or PM is fine.**

 **Need: Sisters of Jaune (The oldest is going to beacon, will need a weapon and semblance)**

 **Minor characters: Mediocre semblances (if a fighter), and honestly, they might die or become a random plot device. Include appearance and personality too, please.**

 **Bye, please review. I'm a whore and I like big fat and long reviews. Include any flames if us like, daddy. I like it.**

 **I ALSO NEED A BETA!**


	2. Classy

**Reviews… The first flame! Woohoo!**

 **Guest's review on other story: Yeah, I get it. People are tired of gamer fics. But come on, none of you have read far enough into the plot to make a good decision about what this actually is. I've made fun of the gamer name itself, and I get it, some gamer fics are really stupid. Also, please understand that this is my first flame, and I want to make it special for him/her/?.**

 **Flamer Guest's review: "thank god another trash gamer fic with more plot holes than Swiss cheese and dialogue worse than Japanese light novel written by a virgin with no clue on how sex works."**

 **Response1: Why, you little bitch! You think you're so smart with your guest reviews-**

 **Sike, it was me the entire time, bitches! Man, this has got to be the best fucking' marketing strategy ever… Thank you, business class! Note: Swiss cheese does not have plot holes. It does not even have a plot. When flaming, take my advice and don't use swiss cheese.**

 **Response 2 readers: Well, I know the cliches of gamer fics. That said, I will rarely use them. In fact, the reason why I used "I am going crazy" in chapter was that it sounded kind of realistic. From here on out, there's really not much collision with the stereotype gamer fic. My focus in this story is not** _ **The Gamer**_ **, but rather an alternate timeline to RWBY, with their respective character problems. And no, I'm not as naive about things like sex and morality and "the power of love", as some of you may be inclined to believe, especially when a gamer fic is published. I dislike most of the other ones, so I wanted to make my own.**

 **Other guest: thanks.**

 **Oneoddtood: Yay**

 **TheLastDarkovian: I'm glad you enjoy it!**

 **Zoro99: his mom isn't African Valean. That's not what I meant.**

 **Odflou: Thanks, and I'll live up to those themes correctly.**

 **(Read the bottom AN, important shit!)**

My mother was not African-Valean, I thought, remembering that yesterday's thoughts would have brought confusion if published in the form of literature.

I kicked the sheets off of me, looking around for any popups.

 **You had a sleep of [89%] rating! Everything should feel fine!**

I grunted and did my morning routine, finished with a shower and everything. My stomach had no protest, something probably relating to **The Gamer** allowing me to live without food. Today was a… Wait, Monday? Well, at least I could research about these abilities in the library.

I headed downstairs, finding one of my sisters and dad, who was trying to find his razor.

 **NEW! [Quest]: Help dad find his Razor!**

 **I don't think you need details.**

 **Time Limit: 7 Minutes**

 **Reward: 5XP**

A quest? Why thank you, game. The 5xp was to be expected from finding a common household tool. With my unbelievably small minimap, which only showed most of the town, I zoomed in on the Arc home. I flipped through the various drawers, looked under couches, but finally found it… In the bathroom. It was taped to the inside a toilet, where a bit of powered water dust rested in a cartridge to help with the flushing.

Ah, the generic prank. Could have been anyone, honestly. Even mom. I washed the razor to the best of my abilities-

 **[Skill]: Washing-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 20%**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **A long time ago, when man found water, they found they could rinse their things in it. That was it.**

 **It still is.**

 **Remove 80% of all Stains**

 **20% Chance for it to look really nice**

Wait. 20%? Did the world run on RNG now?

 **No, honey. We can't make the world do that. However, it's a rough estimate of success.**

Ah, that was reassuring. I mean, it would be _very_ bad if everything was RNG. I mean, if I was the best in persuading, and level 99, or something, but it still ran on chance, there was a major chance I'd screw up, however small it was.

"Hey, dad?"

" **Religion is Gay"**

 **Lv ?**

 **Noah Arc**

"Yeah?"

"I found your razor. It was taped to the toilet."

"No it wasn't."

"It was _inside_ the toilet."

He looked at me again, with that fucking deadpan stare. I swear, he was missing a heart. Figuratively, of course. You can't live without a heart.

"Ok."

"..."

 **Quest complete! +5XP!**

Yeah, sure. My dad's mop of dirty blonde hair was a mess, as usual. His boring attitude was still a mystery to me, added by the "religion is gay" thing I once heard him say late at night. Yeah, he was pretty atheist… I think. Wasn't too sure.

Dad was never the most patriotic, kind, or fatherly soul. Exactly the opposite of mom (I meant parently, my mom is not fatherly). Whenever I asked her about it, she always said he was "just tired". Well, I, like most boys my age, was suspecting something else to be involved with his personality… Maybe an important detail I missed somewhere? Okay, maybe not every boy my age was suspicious of my dad's motive, but- Ah, fuck it.

Dad's sulking got us nowhere, so I sat down at the table with my sisters. Navy was probably asleep, as per usual.

The seven of us made great friends. My sisters and I, I mean. After I was born, my parents had decided seven was enough, but I had a growing suspicion two years ago they wanted another child… I don't know, just a feeling. Well, there was nothing done yet., so...

 _$"/$;)/ [=}^]€~+[•€\ System Glitch_

 _ **12 years ago**_

 _The Arc family stood, waiting anxiously for their matriarch to exit with news. Noah was beside his wife's hospital bed, helping her with the process._

" _Jaune" exited the womb of his mother. Noah smiled. This was their seventh child… He would have six sisters, and only six to raise him. The doctors initially thought the unborn child was a girl, but that was quickly corrected on Juniper's second examination, where apologies were given._

 _Far away, on top of a bright beacon, Ozpin gripped his mug tighter. Something was wrong._

Jane's cup of tea was quickly drained from the white China, its type unknown.

 **Polite as Usual**

 **Lv 27**

 **Jane Arc**

 **[Aid]: Cup of Mistralian Peppermint Herbal Tea**

 **It's a cup of tea, honey. In a white China too. And your sister is drinking it, bitch! Wait, it's actually empty now.**

 **+3% of all Regen for 15 minutes**

Oh, tea… Perhaps food was better at healing? Jane was always the most polite, probably inspired by that old book I saw her read last year. I think it was called… Pride or something? Pride and Honour? I had no clue.

She was also a huntress in training. I always thought she was more of the studious type of hunter, but it seemed her level was quite high regardless. Actually scratch that, I had no idea how much power a single level brought. Mom was level 37, and she was just a trained fighter… A powerful one, of course. And dad? Dad's was probably too high for me to even observe.

It was logical, alright.

What's aura?

 **[Skill]: Observe-(Permanent) Lv 1, 20%**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **As the saying goes, knowledge is power. Access to info of living things up 50 levels above you.**

Holy shit! I was going to definitely start observing my classmates so I can blackmail them for money!

No quest?

Fuck.

I guess… It wasn't genuine enough? The rest of my sisters were doing their own thing, while Cyan had a bowl of cereal and was already attacking it with a mythical ferocity unheard of in town, probably on par with the Faunus warlords of old.

Speaking of Faunus, Ansel was absent from the Faunus revolution around 60 years ago… I wasn't sure exactly why it was this way, but I was glad to be absent from the hate I hear the kingdoms and mining towns have for the other sentient race of remnant.

Mom slapped down a plate of breakfast, and immediately followed the action by sitting on the couch, and turning on the TV before I could say "thank you". There was nothing noteworthy, just a few ads, until Vale's news came back up.

" _This is Maple Lavender, and I'm with the Vale news network. First story, from our newest leak. Yesterday, at around 1500 international time, popular Valean huntress Summer Rose, 2-time winner of Vale's heroics award, has supposedly gone MIA during an unspecified solo mission. The council of Vale, and her team refused to comment-"_

Dad flipped off the TV, grunting.

Mom frowned. "You know her?"

"I think… I may have seen her in one of those yearbooks Beacon keeps sending me. Should be on the front page a few years ago." Dad replied, trying to remember.

"What do you think happened?" I asked, trying to sound smart during the conversation.

"Obviously dead." My dad deadpanned.

"But isn't she, like, a really powerful huntress? Vale heroics awards, right?" I asked, curious.

"Sure, there is a chance she'll live, but 90% of MIA hunters are never recovered. Also, take notice to the heroics awards…She's obviously one of those dumbasses who think they can save everybody and be a hero AND live to see the next day… Not a good combination of ideals, if you ask me. Easy to get yourself killed." Mom glared at him, and a killer aura filled the room. Jane was impassive about it, as usual.

"Don't discuss these things in front of our children!"

"They need to understand the dangers of trying to be a hero!"

"They're way too young for this!"

Me? I… Agreed. He was right. Heroics were for either those who were naive and believed they could be a hero, while the truth was that most died while trying. Those who raised the flags in war were shot down by the thousands, but they still kept trying… Sacrifice was not in an Arc's dictionary.

The Arc lesson was self-preservation, in the end. Even Julius, a war hero, did most of his acts in the name of survival. Well, it certainly looked like a tribute and sacrifice to the war effort. Most of his battles were fought alone, while his friends in arms actually served as his meat shields prior to their demise, which really was why he seemed to be alone every battle and came out victorious.

The Arcs were survivors.

Damn, the fucking pride is stirring my arousal…

Whatever that meant.

"What's aura?" I asked.

Dad appeared interested at first, but Jane cut to the chase. "They'll explain it to you in the dust studies of your science class, Jaune." She sipped on her cup of tea again, somehow magically refilled.

Since there was no hunter education in Ansel, all trainees had to pass the Beacon entrance test for non combat school applicants. It was way harder, but it allowed a personal choice of weapons for compensation. Jane was granted to a sabre my great-aunt used, and a semi-auto (or auto, if you like) dueling pistol I picked for her. I study guns too much…

Well, I saw all that shit about the test in the brochure dad picked up from the city for Jane. Well that "shit test" was the one I had to take if I wanted to be a hunter, something pretty cool, I guess.

Dad actually never had any true objections about being a hunter, and it was weird to see a guy willing to put his children's lives at risk… I didn't know if that meant he trusted us, or just didn't care. Wow, dad. Dick move.

 **Breakfast done! +15% HP and SP Regen for 4 hours!**

Well, wasn't that nice…

I put the plate into the kitchen sink and grabbed my backpack. The walk to the school was short.

Ansel Elementary was a big school, despite our small town. Complete with many a refurbishing and plenty of space… It seemed that most of the profit was donated by my great uncle, Blue Arc. I know, cheesy name. My family was up and down about the whole name thing. They'd gone to the weird, with Navy. They'd went for the classics, with Jane. The rest? We were somewhere between them, alright.

Ah, what a great coincidence is it, to have science as my first class!

#pray4duststudies

I almost kicked my way in, finding I was quite early! Damn, thank you, ability.

 **Suck my Dick!**

 **Lv2**

 **Thomas Black Harrington**

 **Ugh…**

 **Lv3**

 **Rosemary Thorington**

 **The square root of Pi is-!**

 **Lv 1**

 **Declan White**

I filtered out all the data of the plebs, I had no friends anyways.

 **Warning: The author approves of friends, and reclusive behaviour is not suggested in modern-day society**

Well, at least my STR was decent compared to the others. Speaking of friends, who the fuck needed friends when your dad was willing to train you to be a hunter? For now, my only goal was to get good grades, mostly in PE, so dad could be convinced to pull me out of school.

Oh great. As the students entered and conversed, I groaned and closed my ears off to them. I don't know… Just never liked too much talking.

"Greetings class!" Mr. Socrates saved me from my suffering, and the Mistralian man, thankfully not using the imperial measurement system, waited for everyone to stand.

As he seated, we followed.

 **Well, there was that one time I…**

 **Lv 7**

 **Acajou Socrates**

Acajou was supposedly a shade of brown, as I heard from some gossip. Well, he'd actually never followed the dress tradition for colour names. In fact, most people did not dress up according to the colour their name described. The most some went was just to get a matching shirt. Jesus, plain shirts made so much fucking profit, they were on par with soda companies like The People™.

Also, grape soda was fucking stupid. It tasted terrible, and sounded like something a spoiled Mistralian child would drink every Thursday during lunch, and spit out nose shit while doing so.

Orange soda was clearly the superior option, being a much larger fruit, after all…

"Alright class. Last time, we had our review about the properties of the cell. Now, we can move onto the fun stuff: dust."

Most of the class made some kind of noise of approval. I mean, who didn't want to learn about elemental power?

"So, what can you tell me about dust?" Acajou moved his white chalk to the blackboard, writing down several ideas.

"It's magic!"

"It's a highly reactive compound!"

"It contains elemental energy!"

Mr. Socrates put down his writing utensil, and brought down the projector screen.

"Let's start again. What is dust?"

 **What is Dust?**

 **By Acajou Socrates**

"Dust is the source of all power in Remnant."

 **Cars, buildings, robots…**

"Dust has given us the edge against Grimm, and paved the way for our kingdoms."

 **Vale, Atlas, Vacuo, Mistral**

"But what really is dust?"

"To understand how dust works, we'll be first learning about where it all started: Aura." He waited for the class to catch up.

"Aura, in its official scientific description, is the 'light of our souls'. Now, I know most of you will find that strange, this is science class, right?"

The students looked at each other, unsure of what they were learning about.

"I know. But the truth is, we really don't understand anything about aura. That's why it has been recorded as a manifestation of our souls, also in respect to our ancestors, who named it that way, for the same reason."

"What does aura have to do with dust? That, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to the Aura-to-Dust (AtD) theory. The ATD theory is the most widely accepted set of rules for dust, and that's exactly what our main topic this term will be."

The students groaned in protest, and I couldn't help myself. Even if Mr. Socrates was a great and nice teacher, the word "theory" always rubbed us the wrong way. For the first portion of class, I barely made it through, managing to keep a decent amount of notes to use. Also, who the fuck needed notes when you could just Google it? Losers.

The ATD theory was quite simple, actually. It stated that dust was only reactive to aura, and that dust was a converter, or transformer, of aura, explaining why there was so much potential energy in even the smallest quantities of dust.

Mining incidents actually occurred because of accidental bursts of aura. Why? Stressful situations, of course. Mining was an extremely tedious and dangerous job, invoking in many workers activating their auras. And in Atlesian labour camps, there was little training for those who had it, and one thing leads to another, one emotional outcry later, a whole dust mine explodes.

Fuckin morons.

Well, good thing it was rare, otherwise Snow Schnee, and her husband what's-his-name, would be without profit… Yeah, Snow Schnee was pretty racist too.

Oh, on the subject of dust, homework was to present a diagram of how the local dust grid worked. I _think_ there was a control center at the dust generator to release bursts of aura throughout the grid… I think.

"Well, now that boring stuff is out of the way, let's talk about hunters!" Class took an unexpected turn, with many heads now completely focused.

"The other part of your required curriculum in dust studies is Aura safety and basic knowledge of hunters." Socrates drew a brainstorming thingy on the board.

"All hunters have aura. Period. Aura can be used to enhance bodily functions, enabling higher strength, speed, and to coat their weapons in it, as most weapons would actually break under the pressure of several bullets. Do not try deflecting bullets without aura…"

"Let's walk through some other functions of aura. They can increase age expectancy… Provide an immunity to g-forces, and most importantly, give us the _Semblance._ "

Now I was completely fucking lost, and also pretty amazed. All hunters had aura? Of course, the rational part of my mind thought. There was no way a fucking human, or faunus person could react and block a bullet with a _sword_. Even our most advanced metals would break under the power of several dust rounds… Also, their arms would be torn into nothing, since travelling at speeds close to sound would turn a person into _not-a-person_. Thank you, Mythbusters!

What's g-force?

"What's g-force?"

"Ah, Mr. Arc. G-force is is the amount of resistance an object meets when accelerating. Think of it as Remnant trying to push you back and stop you from speeding up. Now that's been answered, we can talk about the semblance."

"A semblance is the physical manifestation of our souls, as you may know. Each individual had a different semblance. How they are exactly unlocked, we are not sure. However, great stress seems to be the root cause..."

Ah, now it made sense. So was my semblance the gamer? I don't know, it was pretty fucking ridiculous. The name of it was plain fuckin stupid as well. I mean, _The Gamer_? Is that what a sane person would want to be called for the rest of their lives? At least my title wasn't the Gamer.

"If we can coat things in aura, can we make things with them?"

"No, Mr. Seaman. Aura cannot condense into solid objects, but semblances can. Now, onto aura safety: most of you will not have aura."

"Aura requires a safety contract and license in Vale, but in Ansel, a similar paperwork is required. Also be aware to not hide the fact you have aura, as there is an annual check for all students ages 13 and above. Hiding unlocked aura can result in several charges, and a potential place in Vale's juvies."

"What's a juvie?"

"Ms. Thorington… A juvie is a form of prison, for those below the ages 17."

"Why is it illegal to have aura without a license?"

"As much training one needs to become as destructive as a hunter, aura gives us potential as a threat to the welfare of the people. Imagine a bully: aura is reactive to human emotion, and can make the weakest of men have the strength to lift cars."

A few people whistled.

"Any intense emotion on either end of bullying could result in… Messier things."

Class was dismissed soon, with homework being a few workbook pages and some discussion things. With that, I was thankful to have decent dress, for it was PE!

I still had a few more questions about aura… At least I understood why dad disliked hunter education. It was the soul! I mean, there was no way I could just believe the soul existed! Well, at least I understood some of the basics.

 **For listening in class, +1 to (INT Learning/Memory) and (INT Logical Deduction)**

Wow, that took a lot of fucking time. Well, it only meant the next one was going to be longer!

 **-(69)-**

"Let's do 4 minutes of warmup jogging, then we'll start the class…"

 **Shorts above Knees**

 **Lv 9**

 **Maroon Field**

 **Oh, dear. +1 to (DEX Lower Body) and (END Limb Toughness)**

I waited for my stamina to replenish, and then did the exercises. Woohoo for fitness week!

 **Baby, look at that ass stretch! (STR Flexibility) unlocked!**

What? Why would it be in STR? Balancing? Actually, flexibility applied to all the different physical stats. Strength to actually touch your toes, endurance to hold the position, and dexterity to move more fluidly.

 **Oh, yeah! +1 to (INT Logical Deduction)**

Fuck yes! I was happy with excitement at this point. Look at dat point! Mr. Field ordered us to stretch again, this time…

"Your unit this term is on gymnastics."

Oh, fuck.

"Which will help with your flexibility."

Hell yeah!

 **Yes, babe~ +4 to (STR Flexibility)!**

Ha! Now, if only Mr. Field would let us hit the weights… That was the actual way to improve muscle mass, not to fucking wear heavy metal weights walking everywhere. Turns out, most of that was actually a placebo effect. If only I knew what that meant…

 **Dammmmmmmmmmmn, girl! +5 to (STR Flexibility)!**

Girl? Where did that come from? Seeing no reply from my admin, I continued with the class.

"Hold it steady: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-" The males in the room collapsed.

"8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17…"

"Damn, what a stretch!"

 **CHU CHU!**

 **Lv 1**

 **Cornell "Weng" Blanc**

Ah, the good ole' Blanc name… Said to originate from some kid, Genghis Blanc, who supposedly conquered half of Remnant, impregnated 200 females, and chased the Chinese out of their home and move to Vale! Now, I didn't exactly know what Genghis and the Chinese looked like, but I had a decent idea after seeing Blanc, whose parents probably lived in Vale or Patch's labour camps 100 years ago [when Genghis took over].

Uh huh, not every race hated on was faunus… There was human/human conflict in our history, but most of it was resolved, in either combined hate against faunus, or just ended with peace and equality.

Cornell snapped his finger. "Hey, are you listening to me?"

"Wh-what? Oh, yeah. Was just thinkin' about some stuff."

"Name's Cornell. Cornell Blanc."

"Name's Jaune. Jaune Arc."

"So, I'm new here… were you in Social Studies in the first class?"

"Nah, didn't see anybody introduce you. What brings you to our humble town?"

Cornell blinked. "How'd you know?"

"Duh. Despite me being… not too popular, I recognize most kids our grade here. If not, I can always remember their faces."

"Ay! Me too!"

I tried to be as humorous as possible, and put on my "lazy bitch" face. "So, why'd you move from Vale?"

"My parents own the new bullhead stop."

"Bullhead… Stop? I didn't see that."

"Oh, right. I sometimes forget the new models are silent… Yeah, some company in Vale is funding Bullhead stops like this one, after that new contract Vale signed with the Frontier towns."

I checked Cornell's Status:

 **Title: N/A**

 **Job: Average Student (+1%XP and INT gain speed)**

 **STR: 5**

 **END: 6**

 **DEX: 7**

 **INT: 9**

 **WIS: 6**

 **LUC: N/A**

No _luck_? Gotcha bitch!

I'm sorry, that was terrible.

Well, I guess that sort of made sense? Normal people didn't have any ways to actually improve the pheromones the were excreting. At least, to my knowledge. Turns out Cornell was from Vale… His parents were bullhead pilots. Despite being a single child, Cornell did not get much care from them. Since pilots paid so well, however, he could easily fit into society and find friends without worrying about having nothing to his name. Damn, quite a story!

"Yo, can you point me to math?"

"Oh, no. We don't have block schedules here. It's a homeroom thing, so just go to the first class you had in the morning."

"But why do I have separate PE classes?"

"Two classes are put together for PE. Just follow the people you came here with."

"Oooohhh. I get it now. Thanks, and see ya tomorrow!"

As Cornell ran, off I walked back to my classroom, finding , my homeroom teacher, already preparing the stuff for math. I observed all the students, draining them of info from their personal lives. Privacy invasion? I think fucking not, CCT!

 **[Observe] Has levelled up!**

 **A teacher!**

 **Lv 4**

 **Parsley Presley**

Again, with Navy being higher levelled than the rest… She probably accepted the offer of becoming a hunter from dad, but decided to tell us. Asshole!

Ms. Presley didn't have anything interesting that was unusual for the average civilian, except she had that teaching skill, which was a bit higher than Field's. Teaching? What could Field teach? Sports were frowned upon by most of Remnant. It was a sign of laziness, a sign of forgetting the dangers that lurked outside. Where adults threw around plastic balls and ran after them and became millionaires, while hunters put their lives on hold, with no reward but death.

In fact, the only earning sport was fighting. The rest were outlawed by the councils, since they needed to focus on making the hunters look good. There was also the question of balance. Aura sports originally existed, but soon shut down; it was boring as fuck. Using aura in sports was a lot worse than people gave credit for. So boring, the sport lost meaning, and fighting was more entertaining anyways. In regular sports, many had to be banned… and one person having aura could topple the whole game.

 **Class Over! +1 to all INT stats!**

The rest of the day went without incident… I decided to ditch visiting the library. There was much to learn on the internet! Shit, I should have just looked it up on google or something. Didn't have to wait for frickin' class to start to do it.

 **A/N: I will keep flaming myself with the guest account, and maybe even go under other names.**

 **History. I will play around with lots of concepts too. "Blanc" is like the "Li", one of the most common Last names in China.**

 **Again, there is a big AU, which you might have noticed recently**

 **Is this going to be a standard gamer fic? Hell no! Even with the drive to improve, Jaune's not just going to get up and start working out 24/7.**

 **Hella abs! No. Jaune's not going to be some fucking harem master every female has a crush on.**

 **Dialogue. It's modelled after RWBY's, but I will cut it down to be more realistic.**

 **I still need a beta**

 **I need ideas for Jaune's sisters. I have their names. Violet, Noir, Cyan, Azure. No dyed or coloured hair, though, and none of them are hunters.**

 **Remember to review, say what you like**

 **Bye, and dick hair.**


	3. Please REVIEW

**Ayyyyy Lmao we're back boys with chapter 3 of GARC! The responses are at the end.**

When I got home, I did a lot of of exercises and got strong. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Got you there, didn't I? When I got home, most of my attention was spent on fucking around, which sadly did not give me any points. I would have asked mom to give back my games… Like that'd work.

"Jaune, what game are you playing?" I jumped out of my seat, startled.

"I'm not!" I exclaimed.

Navy Arc snorted and tried to slap me on the back of my head, and I narrowly dodged it. Slap from a level 12? No thanks. Her eyes narrowed into tight slits.

"Alright, out with it, where's my scroll?" To anyone else, it would be hard to be intimidated by someone shorter than you, but man, level 12? I was surprised I was not dead.

"I swear, I don't have it!" I stuttered.

"I'm warning you, Jaune."

"Chill! Look under the couch or something. Plus, why would I even steal your stuff?" It seemed this only made it worse, as Navy brought out a fly swatter, and… No. It was the almighty nerf gun!

It seemed my chances of survival were slim- "Hey, break it up, dipshits."

 **You little-**

 **Lv 5**

 **Violet Arc**

"Watch the language, young lady!" My mom's voice rang from the kitchen.

"Yeah, _watch_ the language, Violet." Navy said sassily. The brat…

"Fine, but leave Jaune alone."

Navy snarled, but walked out of the room. Violet smiled apologetically and went back… Wait! I needed to sweep and wash so I could level up those skills! I stole the broom from the basement, since using a vacuum probably didn't even have a skill. The basement itself was already a treasure of potential XP gain, with dust gathering on every inch of the room.

 **Sweeping levelled up! +10 XP**

I took off my shoes, and started cleaning and rubbing the bottom of it.

 **Washing levelled up! +10XP**

My eyes flashed with lust and anger, finding several cleaning tools hidden away from prying eyes.

 **[Skill]: Cleaning-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 18%**

 **[Skill]: Dusting -(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 6%**

 **[Skill]: Bedding-**

 **[Skill]: Plumbing-(Passive-**

 **Skills have combined to form [Housekeeping]!**

 **Job created: Janitor!**

 **Recovering from multiple periods of exhaustion has granted you +2 levels of SP!**

 **Housekeeping levelled up! +25 XP**

 **Housekeeping levelled up! +25 XP**

 **Housekeeping levelled up! +25 XP**

 **Housekeeping levelled up! +25 XP**

 **You levelled up!**

 **Housekeeping levelled up! +25 XP**

Huh? Wow, that was fun. **Janitor** gave me some decent XP boosts to when cleaning, including a handy small boost to endurance help the old back!

 **[Job]: Janitor-(Rank I)**

 **You're a janitor, matey. Clean without regret, and protect your closet at all costs. +2 to (END Body Toughness). +20% XP gains speed for all cleaning skills.**

I looked at the now completely clean basement, noticing the walls that were greying. Ah, shame we didn't have any paint left. My eyes shifted to the one room I always thought was creepy, but that fear seemed… irrational now. Thank you, aero knife! Wait, wrong commercial. Thank you, **Gamer's Mind**!

I turned the antique knob… and wow! This must be the old living room the house first had! There was a fireplace, two leathery sofa chairs of pristine condition, and several animal heads posted on the walls. A painting of a war of some kind sat above the fireplace. It was essentially Arc tradition to keep this place clean, on a chair where Julius sat. Oh, of course, there was the family shotgun, Argentum-

 **[Weapon]: Autumn's Gift-(Heirloom)**

 **A 12-gauge smoothbore break-action double-barrel hunting shotgun used by Julius Arc and his son, Jacques. This weapon hunts both game and grimm!**

 **((Break Action))- This weapon ejects its empty shells when reloading**

 **((Aura Channeling))- This weapon has a 20% aura channeling efficiency**

 **((Ammo))- Please, don't load slugs.**

 **((Arbores))- This weapon has 2 triggers, bitch. Channel 25 or more AP and press those two triggers to unleash a massive aura-boosted shot.**

Well, aren't you a nice thing… Shame I couldn't take it.

 **-(69)-**

With 5 points to spend, and a decent increase to my HP and SP, i tried unlocking my AP, which was now confirmed to be aura.

 **Manually unlocking AP: 25 INT and 55 WIS score required!**

Wow, fuck you. It seemed that my game was throwing some kind of hissy fit… Being mean, I _mean_. Fuck, that was terrible.

Well, at least now I could have a bigger stamina, be almost strong as Mr. Field (a part-time bodybuilder), or even beat the fastest kids in my grade, a measly 13 in lower body dexterity. _Why not get a bit closer to all of them?_ That was a decent choice, but… Nah. I was, however, going to decently power them.

Or I could just save them… Shrugging, I left the menu alone.

 **[Skill]: Writing-(Passive) Lv 1, 97% Cost: N/A**

 **+1 to (DEX Hand Agility)!**

 **+1 to (INT Learning/Memory)!**

I wanted to see what the pace of improvement actually was for this thing, so I decided to head outside or something, when I froze. After yesterday, i'd never really explored the ins-and-outs of this thing.

"Abilities."

 **Skills/Perks/Traits/Styles/Back**

Well, traits? Wouldn't that have been good to know from the start…

 **Perks:**

 **[Gray Heart]: Due to the influence of several violent games, your mind has formed a light resistance to violence! Depending on who you kill, face less chance of mental trauma [ALREADY NEGATED BY MIND], moral change, and 50% less hesitation when given choice to harm. High resistance of disgust and fear to most types of violence, and less likely to panic during most situations. Beginner knowledge of aiming a weapon.**

What? Playing violent games could do that? Shit… Did that mean a lot of kids had this? I would have to find out tomorrow.

 **Traits:**

 **Arc Lineage (Male): Being from a slightly genetically superior family born in battle, +500 to starting AP capacity, and +50 AP per level.**

 **Arc-[Brat]: Being the newest member of the Arc family, and not of age for training, the Seven clans of Arc label you as a brat!**

 **Arc-[N/A]: Since you also happen to not belong to any of the Arc clans yet, good luck without bonuses, man.**

Fuck! It seemed like age was actually relevant now… Really have to accept training from dad. Really. And the Seven Arc clans? Haven't heard anything about that… I thought the only famous Arc was Julius?

 **NEW! [Quest]: Find out more about your family!**

 **A mention in your traits menu brings up some questions about the origin of your family…**

 **Stage 1: The clans: There appears to be multiple clans of Arc. 7, actually.**

 **?**

 **Time limit: None**

 **Reward: ?**

Hell yeah! A main fuckin' story quest… About time. Well, actually, it's not even been two days!

Did i mention the aura levels? Yeah, I didn't know how much people had, but five hundred was five hundred, and it was well above my HP. From what I could learn, aura was both an "HP" and "MP", and it was a pretty interesting mechanic.

That also meant that mages had to preserve their auras, or would be fucked thoroughly, unable to use dust or dust rounds.

Also, dust rounds required aura. Period. I researched this particular bit from my sister, who gladly answered all of my questions about dust and aura. It didn't matter if the bullet itself or propellant was made of dust, they all required aura.

Modern firearms introduced a few years after the Faunus wars were capable of automatically channeling light amounts of aura through various methods to both the propellant (if dust) and bullet of the correct cartridge. Hunter firearms consisted of various very powerful aura conductors… Not to the casing, mind you. They could manually dump high amounts of their aura moments before firing, into either the propellant (again, if dust) to increase muzzle velocity and massively increase recoil, or the bullet itself, for a massive decrease to muzzle velocity, but a _fuck ton_ of increase in damage. Almost like… almost like a powerful flare.

Well, why didn't I learn this in my book of firearms? The council preferred to keep things silent about how their tech worked. People tended to freak out when you told them you sent out a part of your soul in each dust round, despite the soul being obviously fake, and giving hunter secrets to the public? Not a good call, my friend. You ever seen a civillian own dust rounds? Ex-fucking-actly! They didn't. Their guns were also civilian models, too.

Most people who fought Grimm, whether it be soldiers or guards, carried a few standard rounds too for backup in case their aura was dry.

"Styles."

 **Styles: None**

What? _What?_

 **Nah man, I was just fucking with you.**

 **Styles:**

 **Housekeeping: Jaune's cleaning**

 **Writing: Jaune's writing style**

 **?: Ballet, Breakdancing, Jazz Dance, Lyrical Dance, Jaune's Solo, Tap Dance, Jaune's Group**

Alright, alright, I admit I was a _little_ too good at dancing, and I suppose each skill had various styles-

 **A hidden skill has been revealed!**

 **[Skill]: Dancing-(Passive)-(Rank II) Lv 87, 57.89%**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Damn, looks like your lessons really paid off. Move around like humans do, but in sophisticated and beautiful ways as a form of entertainment for others.**

 **High Five! -15% SP costs**

 **25% chance to 'wow' the audience**

Aw man, does this mean I won't get any XP?

 **Nope.**

Damn it! Looks like all my hard work was for frickin' nothing!

 **I'm only joking, dude. +1190XP**

 **You levelled up!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **Wait! Not done yet! +2150XP**

 **You levelled up!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **Have an extra point on the house!**

I smiled. Cause man, this was great. My smile of success quickly worn off when I realized I was still one of the lowest levelled people in the town. Azure was a healthy level 4, with Violet at 5, and Cyan also a 5, probably since they are twins…

Damn, my family was powerful!

"Jaune, where are you?"

Damn it, I had lost a bunch of time just staring at things… So Jaune Arc, a slightly-stronger-than-civilian boy, set out to do things!

 **-(69)-**

After the feeling of power wore off, I headed to sleep… At least, that's what you thought!

 **[Skill]: Sneaking-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 15% Cost: N/A**

 **A long time ago, actually, never, people thought it was cool to hide.**

 **x2 damage**

 **+50% Critical damage**

 **+1% chance of success**

My heart nearly leaped out of my chest when I read the "1%" part, but quickly realized it was an additional bonus. Did that mean skills were really just glorified bonuses? That I had to actually learn things? Well, it looked kind of true so far, as I never really felt anything new knowledge-wise in **Housekeeping**. I had to test this with a weapon of some kind, see if I learned anything new while killing things.

 **NEW! [Quest]-**

I picked up my console from-

 **[Skill]: Stealing-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 50% Cost: N/A**

 **To the inhabitants of Remnant, getting their shit stolen is a very interesting idea, and one they debate about rationally and cool-headedly.**

 **+1% Success chance**

Wow, quite the mood shift, eh? From witty to sarcastic… The hell was wrong with it? I sneaked my way back to the living room, the furthest one from my parent's room, after checking on my map.

I plugged in my baby… Oh, this was going to be fun!

Remember how I said mom took my games away? Well, she took away the console, but that was it. My games were intact!

 **Quest complete: Overnight Game: Preparations!**

 **+25XP**

 **400/1200 to next level**

I smiled and booted up Call of Remnant 4: Modern Warfare. I heard about scrolls having potential to surpass gaming consoles, but that was quite a ways into the future. In fact, as of now, most people used the smartphone.

Well, COR 4 was the most recent release, but I heard there was supposedly another game in the works, unfortunately set in a fictional world with no dust and human-on-human war, like the first three ones… The fuck are they thinking? Call of Remnant 4 was _great_ when I first played it, and I did decent, but the multiplayer soon became unbearable. Squeakers, bitches, and those mother fucking adults who played like they were boss and told you to fuck off since you were too young.

 **NEW! [Quest]: Survive the night!**

 **Survive the night and do whatever you like… Just don't get caught.**

 **Reward: 50XP**

I sweated down on the 720 controller, probably because I was still afraid to get caught. The mind rushed in, relaxing me a little, until I got comfortable enough and entered… A nearly full lobby.

I waited for the previous game to end, and spawned in… Assault rifles are fine, right?

I sprinted across the 30-frame landscape, firing on a poor player until they died, wasting quite a few shots due to my poor reflexes. I stared at my remaining points. This wouldn't hurt… Right? I put a point into reaction speed, and-

Fuck! I died. _Okay Jaune, just a little rusty from two months of no-play._

With renewed vigour and confidence, I strode down the lanes of houses, until I was ambushed by two enemies… At least I did a little damage. _Come on!_

 **+1 to (DEX Reaction Time)!**

I growled and switched loadouts. These fucking bastards were going to get it!

I sprinted past my teammates, because fuck team work. I chucked a frag, entering the room immediately-

And then immediately died.

What the fuck? What the fuck? How did they survive the explosion? Fuck you, game, buff grenades!

I moved my hands across the screen of my own game, putting two points into both reaction speed and hand agility.

And immediately died. _What the fuck?_

Two points into hand agility and reaction time? _Come on… Fuck me!_

Death. _Fuck this shit._

Two points into hand agility and reaction time?

Two kills… Not so bad!

 **K:D 1:10**

Fuck.

Feeling brave, I put five points into the same stats i'd been upgrading from the start.

Loading…

1 kill.

2 kill.

With my better reflexes, I could run-and-gun without consequence. I equipped three special grenades, laughing maniacally as I watched people run around frantically, trying to fight the fucker that just stunned them. Yeah I'm one of those dipshits. My other perks were stopping power and steady aim. I... was not very high levelled. But with the way these kills were goin-

Kill streak, baby! I fucked around with the helicopter thingy, killing a decent amount of people, before continuing my streak. Before I knew it, I was out of ammo and died a content death.

 **Top Player: BraunoftheHaune**

Yeah!

 **Sneaking has levelled up! +10XP**

I thought about my choices now… This was a good place to put my reflexes and reaction speed to the test. I selected a basic sniper loadout. I didn't have any other fast paced games, unless I could get unreal tournament. Portal would probably nice for my INT.

I tried this new trick youtubers called "quickscoping" that involved quickly entering scope with a high caliber sniper rifle, and immediately firing to kill… Kind of sick, if you ask me.

I entered upon several noobs and opened fire, dragging my scope across the screen and ending two lives. I chuckled and sprinted towards their spawn… Time to camp!

 **+1 to (DEX Hand Agility) and (DEX Reaction Time)**

"Enemy UAV spotted!" Huh? I thought I was camping their whole team- I died. Ah, a fellow sniper!

I sipped on a cup of water and sneak levelled up again. This time, I tried jumping from high places, and _then_ initiating the drag scope. I almost got it the first few times, but had a first kill on my fourth attempt. I frowned… Perhaps I should just try getting headshots only.

I could only imagine the faces of rage on my enemies as they were mowed down by a simple level 12 as myself.

I went back to my menu, finding some other games to play, but ultimately returned, since it was the only thing with enough action to improve my DEX.

 **-(69)-**

I felt satisfied with the way things were going. My life was great, I could play videogames all night, and most importantly, I was good at them, which made it really fun.

That was… stupid. I spent most of my points doing stupid shit, trying to win a game. In the end, my skill probably increased a lot, but outside of that? I still had a long way to go to being a pro. I reached level 24 and decided to call it quits, since it was getting boring anyways. I chucked my console into my inventory, which seemed to increase by one slot every level up.

 **+1 point on the house.**

Ayy boys, another point on the house!

 **+3 to (DEX Hand Agility) and (DEX Reaction Time)**

 **+50XP! Quest complete!**

That wasn't too bad…

Well, now was the point selection screen. I still had eight left, which wasn't so bad, seeing I wasted most of them last night. I hopped down to the breakfast table, thankfully remembering to take a shower and everything. With nothing to do, I made myself some cereal, hopefully decreasing my sister's and mom's work.

 **+8% of all regen for 2 hours!**

Not bad!

 **Azure of the Stars**

 **Lv 4**

 **Azure Arc**

"Hey, Jaune. You up early today?"

"Yeah. You want help with cooking?"

"Sure, let me show you…"

 **[Skill]: Cooking-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 5, 18%**

I got a bit of XP from levelling up cooking, and prepared a bit of stuff for everyone. I bit down on an accidental extra sausage I made, earning +5% regen for 40 minutes! I ate most of the extra in the pans, finally getting the "breakfast" bonus. Most importantly, I got to take my mind off the fact I wasted almost 30 stat point.

"Hey dad." I said, hearing a set of heavy footsteps creak on the wooden floorboards.

"..."

"Dad, can I have aura?"

 **[Skill]: Persuasion-(Passive)-(Rank I) Level 1, 50%**

"Yeah, sure. I'm guessing this is because you want to be a hunter?" I nodded.

"Isn't it a bit too early for him to consider hunting?" Azure asked.

"Well, none of you asked before your thirteenth birthday. Guess life ain't fair, eh, Jaune?" My dad looked at me, a goofy smirk plastered on his face.

I chuckled.

"Wait, _what_?" Jane jumped down from the top of the staircase.

I was laughing my ass off at this point.

"Dad, you're telling me, I had almost 12 extra potential years to train?" Jane yelled.

"None of you asked! None of you! I ask you people on your thirteenth birthday, only to make sure! If you actually had guts to be a hunter, perhaps you would've asked earlier!" Dad half yell-half explained.

"Fine, I will admit that part is my fault, but a little reminder would've been nice…"

Dad nodded and scribbled some things onto a piece of paper. "Follow this training schedule. I'm busy sending Bianca training vids and actually training Jane, so-"

"Is Navy also training?"

"How did you- Yeah, she is, but your mom would've been angry with her decision, so…" Remember how I said Jane was the oldest? No, she was the oldest in the house. Bianca was already on her second year at Beacon, and probably overpowered me by hundreds of levels.

 **Huh?**

 **Lv 5**

 **Cyan Arc**

"Huh? What's going on?" She said, coming down from the stairs. Violet stumbled down moments later.

"Jaune wanted to be a hunter, so i'm unlocking his aura."

"He's **what**?"

 **Aura-Trained Mother!**

 **Lv 37**

 **Juniper Arc**

"Don't worry. The decision isn't final. I'm just going to get him some light training to see how he likes it." My mom calmed down a little, but was still quite angry.

"How come none of our daughters got their aura this early?"

"Jaune asked me." Normally, I would be embarrassed by the fact that he was so impassive about everything, but I just… accepted it, also because I was laughing a few seconds ago.

 **[Item]: Noah's Workout-(Notes)**

 **NEW! [Quest]: Workout**

 **Finish your dad's workout every day, for the next few months until your thirteenth birthday… Good luck!**

 **Reward: 1 x Hella Abs**

Hella abs? Hell yes! I accepted the quest and ripped the notes from my dad's hands.

"Alright, here goes nothing."

"It is within… Survival that we achieve strength and power. Many fall, and many rise, but in the end, survival is the pure instinct of you, a mere man. I hereby release your will to survive, and relieve this burden of common men off your shoulders."

I felt something stirring inside of me… and a grey aura washed over me, covering my body. No, not gray, grey. Grey aura for the win! Shame my name wasn't Grey or anything grey related.

 **Rolling aura levels…**

 **Soul type… B: 40% Above average**

 **+140AP!**

 **(Arc Lineage)- +500 AP!**

 **Level 7… +300 AP!**

 **[Perk]: Aura-(I)**

 **Dubbed as the "light of our souls", aura can be used in a near infinite variety of ways. You, my friend, have a roll of +10 to all STR, DEX, and END stats due to many factors.**

 **[Skill]: Aura-(P/A)-(Rank I) Cost: N/A**

 **When man had no hero, they looked inside themselves to find it. What they found was the light, holy light of their so-called souls, the souls of all living beings except the Grimm. Regen: 1 minute delay in combat, I per second.**

 **Grants perk 'aura'.**

 **Optional: Use as HP, no damage to self.**

 **+50% pain tolerance.**

 **Optional: (Requires +400 aura) Heal wounds to HP by using a transfer with 50% efficiency.**

 **Optional: Use as SP, or sacrifice aura to heal SP.**

 **If received damage is above 20% of aura capacity, that extra percentage will translate to HP damage. (Received Attack with 28% of aura will give 8% damage to HP)**

 **+30% STR, DEX, END, SP bar upgrade speed.**

Nice… Nice indeed. I suppose other people had different 'rolls', with their own respective starting aura boosts and increase by levels. From what Jane told me, people could increase their auras by training with it a lot… Although I was more keen to disable it when training. My plan right now was to do the exercises to the best of my abilities to improve my SP, so I wouldn't be so dependent on it, like some other trainees.

"Remember to always stay hydrated. If you feel thirsty, it's already too late. Also, try not to eat anything sugar related. Actually, your mom probably knows more about diets than I do. Juniper?" My mother sighed.

"Jaune, just remember that this isn't the only career choice out there, all right?"

"So… Can I play video games for a living, then?"

"No."

My sisters laughed, and dad shook his head in exasperation. For once, mom and dad weren't angry at each other, or arguing about anything. It seemed life was perfect!

 _It's Tuesday!_

Ah, bite me!

Mom flicked on the TV, as usual, while dad sat down and continued with reading his papers. I didn't know exactly why he did it, since he was usually pretty negative about these things, but I suppose it was good to just catch up on what was going on… That, or he was reading a book.

" _This is Maple Lavender with the Vale News Network. First up, breaking news about the Schnee dust company. It appears that Snow Schnee, while last reported 4 years ago to have won the fight with cancer, has actually been dead for the entire time. All appearances of the huntress are hired actors to prevent the scandal from escaping. Despite the concern for the welfare of Remnant's number one dust provider, only one question remains: what will be next for Jacques Schnee and his three children?"_

Vale news network had terrible writers. Obviously, the small company wanted to avoid conflict with the bigger media companies, using various methods to sell their news to the frontier villages around Vale.

"What's her name… Weiss. Weiss Schnee, right? What about the other ones?" Cyan mentioned.

"I think it was White and… Winter?" Navy answered.

I didn't care. Weiss Schnee was that 8-year-old spoiled brat I heard about recently, and I was more than glad that she lost her mother. People like her and their families deserved to pay for their sins. Despite however unfair life was, when you put people where they didn't want to be put, you were taking a big risk… I just… couldn't bring myself to accept that their cruelties and the suffering of the faunus brought the dust we had today. It angered me.

Make no mistake, I did not believe in the power of love or that the "good guys" always won. I simply believed… In justice. Not the "fuck-you-I'm-superman-and-i-refuse-to-kill-anyone-cuz-love-is-power" kind, but justice in it's purest form:

Death.

 **Plain and Simple**

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Lv 7, 42.5% (510/1200)**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Job: Janitor**

 **HP: 190/190**

 **AP: 949/940**

 **SP: 205/205**

 **STR: 21**

 **DEX: 30 (mostly from slightly above human reflexes, and running speed is that of a casual marathon runner, which is pretty common)**

 **END: 18 (Again, this isn't even at peak human potential. Jaune has aura, so…)**

 **INT: 11**

 **WIS: 3**

 **LUC: 5**

 **Age: 12**

 **Height: 1.61M (lol fuck imperial)**

 **A/N:**

 **Q- Wait a minute- Jaune's aura is white! And Weiss isn't 8!**

 **A- Find out yourself, dipshits. I will leave a hint, though… "AU"**

 **Q- Jaune's OP, dawg. Don't lie.**

 **A- Like TGWP, the level of a sixteen year old trainee is around 32… That said, Jaune will be powerful, no doubt, but he will frequently be forced to retreat. Unlike most gamer fics, Jaune's skill is not determined by his game skill level. The skills are just bonuses in damage or whatever. This is a major balancing issue some people ignore. While his progression in body and aura levels have sped up, his fighting skills will still have to be taught or learnt.**

 **Canon: Jaune's aura will be huge! Hugh Mungus, actually. It's not as big as in canon Beacon, but it's really high for a 12-year-old. If only he knew how to fight...**

 **Nerfs: I've looked at aura again, and most of it says that the strength and speed come from channeling, not from casting aura or just having it. Jaune will still have to learn the complicated process of channeling, like all hunters.**

 **Plasma Dragon 312- thanks. If you're worried about Jaune being too powerful, he's not. Still a long shot to go!**

 **TheLastDarkovian- That's correct, mate. Have a good one, a good bloody one mate.**

 **merendinoemiliano- Alright, sure. I feel pretty strongly about sexualization in fiction, but harems? It's technically under fantasy and probably smut, and that's like… 40% of this website. I don't think you'll have much luck at all, with free speech being a thing. Harems are just not offensive enough to be considered hate speech… That's kind of unfortunate.**


	4. Bunny Hoppers

**Mistake last time: Jaune's DEX is actually a bit over 20, not 30. I need a beta.**

"Jaune, listen to me." My dad returned to his state of boring-ness.

"Our world, Remnant, is polluted with people that will do all kinds of bad things. However, the worst of the worst? It's the people you see walking alongside you when you enter a hunter academy. This… cult is like a stain on humanity; the belief that the soul is real. You see those kids out there? They doin' stuff like meditation, voodoo, and soul worship."

"Dad, I don't think it really matters what this aura is. I mean, it's probably not the soul, and the teachers said we call it that only cuz we don't understand anything about it." I said.

"Well, son, there's a bigger lesson here. Whenever you see people dying… people hurting, you gotta make a decision. Like all Arcs, we take what we can, and we get out. No big risks, no heroics, it's all about your life."

"I know. I won't go on a mission to save people if it's too much of a danger to my survival."

"Just like your grandmother… Come, Jaune, walk with me to your school."

Mom shot me a worried look, and my sisters were in obvious distress. I smiled nervously and left.

"Jaune,"

"Yeah?"

"When you see all these buildings, these kids playing around, and that convenience store right there. What do you think?"

"What do you mean? They're just buildings. Just kids playing around. Just another convenience store."

"These things… they're all concepts, Jaune. All impossible to achieve even if humanity had a different thought at the beginning. Ever wonder what a totally different society would look like? No, we wouldn't ever know. Everything around you is built up upon one thing- the will to survive. Our world is built from this one foundation- the Arc lesson. Society, social norms, marriage, even soda are all ideas that stemmed from one being, and haven't evolved much since."

I looked around, trying to understand. So… all these things were just ideas floating around? What a negative way to think about it… "Well, aura is aura. If it can help me survive, I'll use it."

"Yeah…"

Dad stood there for a moment, and then left. I didn't really know what to think.

Perhaps a higher INT?

 **-(69)-**

"Hey, Jaune." Cornell walked beside me.

"What's up?"

"Ah… the usual. Hey, Jaune… Do you ever feel like… like your parents are just bad people?"

"Me too. Just a bit. My dad… I don't know. He's a retired hunter, but he doesn't like most of the trainees and celebrity hunters."

"Really? Why?" I shrugged. "No clue."

"So… what weapon did your dad use?"

"He hid most of the weapons somewhere, since he doesn't really need them anyway."

I waved my goodbyes, and skipped back home. I did some homework, earning no points in INT… a shame. Dad handed me some lien for the gym, and I walked up to the reception.

"Hi, uh… Can I… buy a pass?"

"Sure. Just fill out this form." The red-haired receptionist looked up from her seat, handing me a set of papers.

 **[Item]: Ansel Gym Membership Signup sheet**

"Here you go." I filled the stuff. It was mostly just personal information, contact info… The shit you'd want to know.

"Alright, head on in. Change rooms are that way." She handed me a card, which I gratefully took. Well, I was already changed, so I didn't mind. Let's see… warmup. There were a variety of things, mainly a short run, and a few simple exercises here and there.

 **Notes added to journal!**

Sick! I read through the concerningly high number of exercises, doing several weights while running… What the fuck was dad thinking? I would have liked to take short breaks, but the reward of the quest was too much to avoid. I saw many people… People with aura, people without aura, hunter trainees, but mostly people without aura. With a quarter of the shit done, I relaxed a little.

 **Note: Son, here comes the hard part.**

Oh fuck?

Gamer's mind pushed me on, urging me to improve for the sake of delicious trait points, you might as well call it a form of insanity. Two minutes in, I was already collapsing.

 **HP: 189/190**

What? I felt my aura go to heal up the light damage, losing two AP in the process. Ah… I suppose my muscles took a bit of a hit, and would regenerate, slightly stronger. I finished up, feeling slightly better, taking a water break.

Now that I had a few seconds, I could think about my future investments. From what I could see, the plan had nothing much to do with DEX, and mostly involved my endurance, strength, and stamina. I dumped 3 points into both lower body and upper body DEX, leaving two points alone for later things. I finished the damn thing in… I don't know, more than an hour? I sighed and left, fully exhausted. So much progress!

 **Extended amounts of workout has increased your SP by 3!**

 **+1 to (STR Chest/Back/Hip/Abdomen)**

For the next few days, school went by as normal, and I gained a few points of INT… And not a single point of WIS. I didn't have any intention of joining a cult or becoming religious, so I put the idea of actually increasing my WIS away.

 **Persuasion** 'ssuccess chance depended on different factors, but it mostly stemmed down to intelligence. I soon learned that my previous idea of charisma was being "charming", but that mostly involved radiating an aura of confidence. The more confident people felt about themselves, the more "charming" they were. In other words, for me, that depended on my LUC's pheromone excretion. Well, it also includes experience and skill, but that was a whole different topic.

Pheromone excretion… I didn't have to tell you how morally unjustified that was, upgrading the chemicals you excreted to make people be nicer… It was like a plot from a Bond movie. Observe had a sinister nature as well, and could probably been seen as a semblance in itself, if used properly.

My training? Oh, I did that everyday. Well, I got used to the sensation of aura healing my muscles, but they didn't give too much experience, and I had no way of controlling it. For other aura techniques, dad refused to train me in them. No, it wasn't for the safety of my peers, Em, Mom would go completely berserk!

Call of Remnant was coming along quite nicely, with me reaching second prestige at an alarming rate. I liked the fact that the game challenged you to play again, and oh boy, I was up for it. I set up a simple email account, and I soon linked it to my 720. Mom had actually asked me for the console a couple of times, but seeing that there was literally nowhere to hide it, I convince mom that I didn't have it.

"Hey Nav," I said, passing by the couch. "You watching that movie again? What's it called… The Mat?"

 **Ice-Cqueenm**

 **Lv 14**

 **Navy "Creme" Arc**

"It's the Matrix, Jaune." The brown-haired teenager explained. "Wanna watch? I can restart it."

"Uhh… Sure." Me and Nav were in a love/hate relationship, at least I _think_ that was the word for it. Ya know, sibling stuff.

As the movie started, I kind of liked the data-ish intro. Matrix was around 5 years old at this point, and I believed there were sequels, but I knew nothing further than that. _"Morpheus believes he is the one."_

"Wow, cliche, anybody?" I asked. Navy slapped me, really hard, and continued watching.

Trinity did a series of decent acrobatic moves, disabling or killing the many policemen. "You know, she could've just stayed on the ground and punched them…"

"This is a movie, Jaune."

"..."

Neo wakes up in his city… Really cool and retro, if I had a say so myself. It was apparently a world where they conquered the Grimm and used up all the dust, resulting in mass expansion of land and seeking of alternatives in science. "Are there hunters?"

"No, the machines killed them."

"Oh…" Neo was soon captured by the agents, which sort of forced him to help capture Morpheus. Neo than was given the choice of pills…

"Which one's the one where he learns about the Matrix again?"

"The red one."

"Oh… Ok." Yeah, sometimes things got awkward during our conversations.

Morpheus explains the whole matrix thing, which was sort of a far cry from my first speculations. They could harvest human aura for electricity! There was a big plan, and serious shit was done. Neo then does a bunch of weird martial arts things, and visits the oracle, which was an even worse far cry from what I'd expected.

"Do you think martial arts is actually effective?" I asked.

"Not really. Some people with fine aura control can perform very well, but it's nowhere as good as modern hand-to-hand combat training. It is what it says to be, an art form."

I laughed when I saw the spoonbender kid, and Navy soon followed, jesus, that fuckin' bald head… And then the movie fucked my mind with false expectations and a lackluster "love wins" ending. Still, a pretty good movie, and they really nailed down special effects, making it very different from all those shitty action films.

"My favourite… It's gotta be Morpheus." I answered.

Nav sighed. "What? Neo is obviously the best character, you know? Main character and all?"

"Neo has decent personality, but he's just a casual stereotype main character."

"Don't bullshit me!"

"..."

"Well, let's just watch the sequel!"

 **-(69)-**

It was a few days later, will I ever stop saying that, when I received _the_ message. Basically, I signed up on a popular forum I found… And guess what? They had a competition! Tickets for the Vale electronics expo (V3), anybody? No? Okay, fuck you.

 _Greetings, player! You've shot your way through our COR: Regicide tournament, and won yourself a ticket to our very own V3 group!_

Ah, there was a printable document posted on the bottom! I quietly produced the ticket, and stuffed it inside my inventory. While I hadn't stored anything other than my console and a few other things in there, the inventory's capabilities were still a mystery to me. Could it store people? Grimm? Bullets?

I chewed on an apple and headed to the gym… Wait. I had no way of getting there.

I mean, there was no way mom would let me go to Vale by myself, and dad wouldn't care enough to step in. Transportation was a fail, too. Cornell's parents would never fly a kid into the city, much less a twelve-year-old! Ah shit… What if I could run there? What if there was… Wait! Yes! Loot! The game said there would be loot, and I had exactly two months to make enough progress. So, my quest began, for loot that could… fly me to Vale?

Shit, first step was to get Grimm to kill. Easy enough, we had a dense enough forest right beside the North-western wall, and if I could sneak in at night, the limits would be endless.

Second, a weapon. Under mom's command, dad promised to not teach me fighting until I was 13. That said, Arbores was my only option… Unless I could steal some other guns… No. Also, convincing mom was a bad idea. You could never convince mom.

I would have to steal shit.

I took a few moments to understand that, and that I'd legitimately have no way to get to Vale if I couldn't get enough lien to either bribe Cornell's parents, find another way, or have ammo for Grimm. So, no stealing guns. All of the stuff in the gun store were civilian models anyway, and the dust rounds were locked up in this safe.

 _Sigh… Time for a heist._

loot. 12-gauge buckshot were cheap stuff anyways, so it would be unlikely for them to actively start looking for me. I wouldn't steal any guns, so… I spotted the stuff in the glass cashier desk. Maybe i'd take a few birdshot as well, try and hit some baby nevermore.

2\. Break-in. I would use rocks to get my way in. Despite there being a heavy garage door, the windows were locked but easy to take care of.

3\. Escape. To not leave too much of video evidence, I would disable that computer with all those cables… It was the security monitor. The cameras around Arc home would have to be on, though. Fortunately, I knew the location of all the cameras in town, and… I would kill some of em'. Thank you, 26 STR!

 **NEW! [Quest]: The Heist**

 **Part 1: The planning (completed)**

 **Part 2: You've decided to use stones to break the windows of the store, leaving as little evidence as possible.**

 **Reward: +200XP, ?**

 **Planning of a heist has given you +1 to (INT Application)!**

I calmly observed the shop, planning my entry and escape route. Clothing? Sure, a couple of disposable outfits, perhaps.

Wait… What choke was the gun again?

 **Cylinder, my man.**

Ayy! Thanks.

The boy sneaked his way through the labyrinth of his home, descending downstairs, closing his trail carefully, leaving everything as is, even after exiting his home through the back. For a moment, he did not move, but if you looked closely enough, one might notice the strange motions his hand made, and a beanie appeared over his head.

Why, it appears that a great wizard has been revealed! The boy crept his way past the gates of his garden, crossing many a street before reaching his destination… He breathed heavily, before unleashing several round projectiles in his gloved hand, precisely hitting many devices peached onto the sides of street lights. He again, made that strange set of spells with his hand, and a thick set of clothes covered him, and a padding covered his feet, concealing his footprint.

With a cautious throw, the windows of the weapon store broke apart, sounding an alarm. The boy cursed, quickly hopping into the shop, taking another stone and destroying the cabinet housing hundreds of rounds, all the while breaking cables to rid of the camera footage. In a quick and practiced motion, over thirty boxes of buckshot and birdshot were emptied from the store.

Jaune cursed again and again in his head, bolting out of the store and hiding in a spot he knew his identity would not be compromised, using his inventory to dispose of the outfit.

 **Stealing levelled up! Stealing levelled up! Stealing levelled up! Stealing levelled up! Stealing levelled up!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **Sneak levelled up! Sneak levelled up! Sneak levelled up!**

 **The heist complete! +200 XP**

 **Job [Burglar] obtained!**

 **[Job]: Burglar-(Rank I)**

 **Remnant is a dog-eat-dog world, and sometimes, you may find yourself in need to obtain your needs and wants through other methods! A burglar is no thief, but a mere stealer of items. +2 to all DEX stats for a quick getaway, and +20% XP gain speed for burglary related skills. +1 to INT stats for a good plan. Skills: Stealing, Sneaking, ?.**

 **-(69)-**

I lay in bed that night, having disposed of most things. I had switched outfits multiple times, rolling them up into a bundle and hiding them within the depths of my inventory, nowhere to be found. Inventory's advantage was that it was hard for me to leave any kind of fingerprint evidence, and all that shit I wore would probably confuse them.

Also, I didn't have anything. There was no motive for me to steal those things, and I didn't _have_ them in the first place.

See what I did there?

Wait.

Did I… Just steal from someone? While I thought it was okay to steal in certain situations, I was against it most of the time. I didn't think anyone deserved to have their shit stolen, much less get killed, unless they made other people suffer.

Pain? Suffering? Evil? Those were all loose terms, easy to throw around, but hard to define. What I'd done was for the sake of killing Grimm, but… At least I could repay them. I only stole some of their time… And made their security better. Who the fuck has that kind of room design in a weapons store?

As much as I would like to say I was doing the store a favour to improve their security, I still took their lien, property, and time…

 **NEW! [Quest]: Repaying**

 **Cause you wanted loot, you stole a bunch of shit, naughty-boy~. Time to give them back their lien!**

 **Pay for property loss**

 **Pay for repairs**

 **Reward: 300XP**

Damn my bleeding heart! In two days, I would hunt… And most likely get lien.

 **Realizations about yourself has given you +1 to all WIS traits.**

Those two days passed quickly, and the initial surprise of the robbery was starting to die down. Crime was pretty rare in the frontier, after all. "United against Grimm" was basically the motto of any town or village, and economically speaking, I did less than 1200 lien in property damage… Not much, if you ask me.

Still, for the greater good (loot), I crept down the stairs once again, lifting **Autumn's Gift** from its display, sneaking out in a new outfit I put together with some old stuff. I sprinted my way across the town, 21 DEX probably making sure I would be there within a minute. Sure enough, there was the climb over the walls. I found footing on the emergency ladder, making sure the patrol wouldn't see me.

With a soft thud, I landed on free ground. I'd never visited too much of the wall, since Grimm weren't really nice things to watch in your freetime. There weren't too many, but most of the time, a few could be observed from the watchtower. I crawled into the forest, opening up my minimap to ensure I wouldn't get lost. For every step I took, hundreds of pixels of coloured square revealed themselves, marking that I'd been to this part of the world. The trees were a little too high to climb, so spotting the Grimm from a distance was probably not the best idea.

As I trekked through the forest, I couldn't help but feel a sense of loneliness. The nature was amazing, creating the perfect canvas for a painting. Forests and streams roared around me, with most birds, except that owl, asleep. I was initially afraid of that the wolves might be here, but I soon learned they were not that common. That, and I'd fucking blast them apart if they took one fucking step towards me.

Oh, on the subject of my prey tonight, I studied Grimm a bit before heading out. Mostly hunter forums and official government sites for self-defense and cataloging Grimm. Beowolves… Had to dodge first to make them vulnerable to counterattack. The young kids had no self-preservation, lunging relentlessly and sloppily.

I heard a short growl, and I stood still behind a tree. In my line of sight, three beowolves were walking around, obviously unable to detect anything from the town when 99% of its population was sleeping. Only high amounts of negative emotion was enough to attract them. A simple hissy fit might throw a few wolves at us, but even if Ansel was 10,000 people, Grimm incursions were rare. Morale and happiness was at a good high. I guess I was a little disappointed at not being able to kill my first Grimm with a sword, but life was life. _What the fuck am I doing?_

 **Critical Damage: The damage inflicted upon hitting a critical spot. +100% initially, +5% per rank.**

Ah, this improved the damage upon hitting vital organs… Not too hard, since even small beowolves were two heads above me. Damn me and my low height… This is all your fault, Navy! I put two points into the trait. Well, at least this was one of my first Grimm sightings where I was in close proximity with them. The Mind obviously stopped a lot of the emotion that revealed myself to the Grimm, so I was basically invisible! Good to know. I took aim with some random stance and grip I searched up online, and fired.

 **Sneak critical! x335% Damage! The buffs have stacked!**

 **Black Wolf of Grimm**

 **Lv 12**

 **Beowolf Junior-(320/800 HP)**

 **Black Wolf of Grimm**

 **Lv 11**

 **Beowolf Junior-(750/750)**

 **Black Wolf of Grimm**

 **Lv 6**

 **Beowolf Junior-(500/500)**

Have you ever heard the sound of a critical hit? Have you ever seen a beowolf hold its mangled face in pain? Have you ever… No more jokes. Straight to the point, it was a fucking beauty. The biggest kid in the group, one with the most armor, was met with another blast from my motherfucking master blaster. Normally, a person would experience serious recoil with this, but I compensated for this with 26 Limb/Hand STR, which was above the possible limit for humans, unless you had aura, or had done professional bodybuilding for several years. 25 STR? Yeah, that might also take a few years.

 **[Skill]: Shotgun Mastery-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 40%**

 **Skill applies to all guns capable of firing shotgun rounds, including slugs. Higher STR and END for recoil control, DEX for better shooting.**

 **+1% Damage**

 **+1% Critical Damage**

 **+240XP!**

The other two charged, and I could potentially dodge, but I didn't know _how_. Like, there were serious evasion techniques to be learnt. I barely reloaded and stepped out of two lunges, turning back to fire one them.

 **Critical! (327/800)**

The ring of a firearm stunned the wolf, and I had a brief chance to fire at the other one, unfortunately not scoring a critical, as the buckshots probably missed the heart.

 **(300/500)**

My hands clacked down on the break-action, ejecting the two shells, which thankfully did not hit me in the face. I pressed two fresh shells from my inventory, which had been organized neatly for quick reloads. I took little aim and shot the small one again, lowering its health to around 80. I turned and fired on the Lv 11:

 **Sneak critical! Enemy was not aware of your position! +220XP**

 **+30XP! Shotgun Mastery levelled up!**

Yeah, you little bitch, that happens when I fucking shoot you in the face with a fucking shotgun! I decided to try my luck in hand to hand combat… not a good idea. I activated my aura, and now my fists had fucking 990 health, unable to break, but merely hurt. I stepped in and punched the thing, reducing its health by… 3. Fuck! I took out a kitchen knife I stored in my inventory, and stabbed it a few times. Ah, the sensation of the first stab.

 **Critical! Critical! Critical! +120XP**

Ah, so Grimm opponents gave 20 times their level of xp. I reloaded and brought out a box of shells, organizing them into neat packs of two in each slot for quicker loads. My AP from punching was already regenerating, since combat was technically over.

 **[Skill]: Knife Mastery-(Passive)-(Rank I) Level 2, 13%**

 **A long time ago, when man was born from dust, they did not have knives. Later, they made knives. Yeah, they made knives. Hit harder with STR, faster with DEX.**

 **+2% Damage**

 **-2% SP cost**

 **Attack 10% faster**

 **Knife Mastery levelled up! +30XP**

I looked on the ground, to see… Weird shit. The Grimm were dissolving, yes, but their remains were forming into…

 **[Item]: Grimm Bone Light Armor-Left shoulder**

 **[Item]: Grimm Bone Light Armor-Left upper arm**

 **[Item]: Grimm Bone Light Armor-Right Thigh**

 **2 x Minor Health Potion**

 **[Title]: Grimm Killer**

 **Novice Grimm killer… Guy… Dude… Man… Whatever. +10% Damage to all Grimm.**

Nice! The health potions restored 15 HP each, and I equipped the pure white armour. It fitted my size with tight white bone straps that protected a decent portion of their supposed area, and no, it didn't have any spikes on it.

It was just… Light armor.

That was pretty fucking awesome, to form loot from the dead bodies of my enemies. I equipped the title. A few lien also laid on the ground… Woohoo!

 **29 x lien**

Ah, so one lien per level for beowolves… Not bad at all.

 **29/1340**

I picked up my pace-

ROAR!

 **Bears are Gayyyyyy**

 **Lv 14**

 **Ursa Minor-(1400/1400)**

Ah, fuck me. I popped two new shots into Autumn, barely able to react to jump right when the Ursa lunged, jaws and paws ready to kill. I jumped back again when it stopped its charge and swiped while turning, but I fired Autumn before that. With its iconic roar of fire, the Ursa's hand was mangled… With no fucking exit wound.

I fired a round into its face, scoring a critical as I jumped back quite a few meters to reload. The Ursa had suffered… 600 damage.

 **(758/1400)**

The bonus damage was from me firing at almost point blank, compared to the encounter with Beowolf & Co, where I stood at a good distance away. Shotguns, even with the most spread, did not spread that much. Call of Remnant and shooter games simply made it that way for balancing issues… Wish I had a fucking rifle.

I reloaded and circled it, firing a shot into its neck, and finally ending it through a shot at through its left ear.

I won't lie, but normal shotguns would probably take two or more shots… Autumn's gift was specifically designed for tough targets, and probably a revolutionary design when it came out. This was a hunting shotgun, and even the worst hunter models were a cut above civilian firearms.

 **Shotgun Mastery Levelled up! +30XP**

 **+420XP**

 **[Item]: Grimm Bone Medium Armor- Chestplate**

It was what you expected, something slightly heavier than the light series, but also thicker and harder. One size fits all! Oh, yeah, I guess the tougher the Grimm, the more defended their armor...

 **28 x Lien**

 **(57/1340)**

I collected my dropped and empty cartridges, and walked deeper in. The Grimm Chestplate felt heavy and new, but it seemed relatively good for protection.

I heard a few rapid footsteps, and I was tempted to check it out, but decided to keep walking. The rustle of a bush brought my attention, and out hopped…

A bunny?

 **Black Rabbit**

 **Lv 4**

 **Lepus Larvae-(40/40)**

It immediately lunged for my feet, but I raised it and stomped it to the ground.

 **+14XP**

"Nooooooooo bunny whyyyy!"

What had I done? Why? How could this have happened? Ah shit, it was a fucking Grimm.

THUD

THUD

THUD

 **Whose Hops Shake the Souls of Man**

 **Lv 43**

 **Leprechaun-(8300/8300)**

Oh, fuck my fucking life. Why did I have to kill a fucking giant rabbit? And what the fuck was a Leprechaun MF doing here? It didn't help that it was almost two Jaunes tall, and it _certainly_ didn't help that there were several Lepus clinging onto it. The giant was truly a giant, it seemed. A white mask with miniscule red tribal marking covered most of its face, preventing me from doing lots of damage quickly.

The Rabbit shrieked and jumped, while I did my best to avoid it. Lepus were known to be one of the weakest Grimm, but this? Holy fuck, it'd probably wreck my ass. Why, game? Why?

My eyes widened when the impact created a small shockwave and crater, throwing me off quite a bit. I ran, fast as I could, until I calmed down… The Lepus was looking for me. With the Mind, I was essentially invisible to it if I was hiding, since negative emotions were the main way of making yourself known to Grimm. The gunshots probably brought a lot in, but i didn't give a shit.

I peeked around the tree and pressed both triggers, with me unable to use that special perk it had since I didn't know aura channeling.

 **Sneak Critical! (7697/8600)**

 **Sneak levelled up! +10XP**

Heh, not bad. I loaded two shells and ran like fuck, blending in with the trees to hide from the Lepus. The tree that was my previous cover was no longer there, as a leap from the Lepus had nearly uprooted it. Fuck, that jump was strong as fuck. I still hadn't taken much damage, probably because I wasn't using any form of never combat. I breathed and assigned five points into critical damage, looking beyond my cover and firing at the mad rabbit.

 **Sneak Critical! (6855/8600)**

 **Shotgun Mastery levelled up! +30XP**

Finding that the tactic was now useless, as i'd been spotted, I hopped into the clearing and popped open the barrel, weighing two shells in my hand before throwing one after the other into the air like flipping a coin, and caught it with the gun.

 **[Skill]: Reload Trick-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 25%**

 **To reload is an art. It is, after all, one step before the kill. Reload at insane speeds with incredible agility, almost like a magic trick. Much faster reloads, and +20% success chance for persuasion related skills.**

Ah shit, this was just a bonus. It didn't tell me any new tricks, so I had to learn those on my own. The Lepus jumped and slashed, creating a wave of air I had to jump back from. I took fire again, but it was blocked by its partially armoured arm. Lucky for me, I only fired one round. I waited for the Lepus to move its arm away, and fired the other one. That shotgun mastery, though… Useful.

 **(6649/8600)**

Lepus hopped again, this time aiming to stomp me into mush. I stepped back and took most of the shockwave to the face…

 **AP:(970/990)**

Eh, not bad. I reloaded and pressed the two triggers at the Lepus' eyes, heavily damaging it.

 **Critical! (6266/8600)**

I rolled away, hiding among the trees, and climbing with all my strength up one of them, barely holding on. I reloaded and looked down at the furious rabbit, which had now began looking for me again.

 **Sneak Critical! (5672/8600)**

 **Shotgun Mastery levelled up! +30XP**

 **Sneak levelled up! +10XP**

Gg, easy.

The Lepus roared and leaped several meters above the tree, preparing to crash down and…

GG, hard! GG, hard!

In my panicked state, I jumped off the tree. However, this seemed to be the actual intention of the Lepus, as it sped towards the earth at speeds far too quick for me to dodge. It landed with a deafening crash, sending wood shrapnel towards me. _Oh, fuck, tell my family I love them…_ Was this the final moment of my life? Watching a giant Grimm rabbit dick crush me to death?

 **AP: 700/990**

Lol, easy. I loaded the gun and pressed the two triggers.

 **Critical! (4831/8600)**

Ah, the ole' run and gun. The game continued long into the night. I would run away and hide while the bitch continued to look for me, getting angrier by the second. My eyes shifted to a compromising position, where the Lepus was trying to sniff me out… LIke that'd work. I fired both shots at it, scoring another sneak critical.

 **Sneak Critical! (4002/8600)**

The lepus' senses distorted, my great-ass marksmanship narrowly avoiding its mask and hitting the flesh that lay beneath. _Come on… 10 more Xp…_

I reloaded and fired again.

 **Sneak Critical! (3200/8600) Shotgun Mastery levelled up! +30XP You levelled up!**

Yes! I deposited 5 points into critical damage, reloaded, and fired again. Jesus, do I have to say this everytime I tell a story (yes!)?

 **Sneak Critical (2197/8600)**

Again! The bunny was now flailing on the ground, having a mangled face does that to you.

 **Sneak Critical: The enemy was not aware of your position! (1264/8600)**

 **Sneak Critical! (153/8600) Sneak levelled up! Shotgun Mastery Levelled up!**

I stomped on that MF, stuffing the gun into its throat and finishing it off.

 **You won, high five, bitch! +4800XP! You levelled up! You levelled up! (1446/2000) XP**

Alright, alright. I admit I was a little cheaty here and there with all the bastard critical hits, but killing a Leprechaun… A relatively weak, but high levelled Grimm. My aim and the fact that Autumn's Gift was overpowered didn't help. My ears were slightly ringing from all the shooting, and I felt the soft shivers in my hand dissipate quickly. Thanks, endurance.

And I did this without aura moves? Fuck you, Grimm were hands-down weak AF.

 **4300 x Lien**

That, however was something worth talking about.

 **Repeated use of critical damage has made it stronger! +5 to (LUC Critical Damage)**

And maybe that, too.

 **Plain and Simple**

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Lv 11, % (1466/2000)**

 **Title: Grimm Killer**

 **Job: Burglar**

 **HP: 235/235**

 **AP: 1090/1090**

 **SP: 300/300**

 **STR: 26**

 **DEX: 25**

 **END: 18**

 **INT: 14**

 **WIS: 4**

 **LUC: 9**

 **A/N: Did you like the fight? I mostly had Jaune be a sneaky bastard, using mostly crits. The reason why his shots even did damage was the critical system, which massively boosts damage, and sneak, which massively boosts sneak damage. Also, I left a huge fuckin' hint in every chapter… Surprised none of you noticed. If you did, just say you have. Don't spoil it for others!**

 **Ssjzohan: What? I confuse m8.**

 **Meh-Master (Guest): No.**

 **Joe Stratnoff (Guest): It was intentional, all right. I'm not writing this on the fly, although some ideas are relatively new. You'll get your answers soon enough. Plus, just because I wrote his views, doesn't I'm going to keep them. It's actually quite common for people to think this way, and as I've mentioned, Jaune doesn't know any "knight saves damsel in distress" stories.**

 **Willfant: You got it, I won't stoop so low like many other fics.**

 **Anonymous (Guest): Ayyyy! I will admit, I didn't know what you meant at first, since I don't own a Wii or play smash. Also, aura is not nerfed** _ **that**_ **bad.**

 **TheLastDarkovian: Yep, fear the Jaunetor! And… I don't think Jaune will be interested in someone he's seen as an 8-year-old. I don't like the idea of someone having a crush on 12-year-old Jaune, and in the future, it will probably be hard to like him at all.**

 **Plasma Dragon 312: Thank you for understanding the point of the gamer existing in the first place! To become powerful. I'll see ya in the next one!**

 **BTW, does anyone know how old Winter is in canon right now? The show is terrible at doing character introduction!**

 **I need a beta who can correct mistakes, and ask a few questions in case a scene feels stupid or doesn't make sense.**

 **Remember to review! Tell me what you think, any criticism is fine.**


	5. NEEDLES

**Random Reader (Guest): I thank you for giving me some great criticism. I cut down a considerable portion of the stats when I was first writing and editing, since when I read it, there was the trouble of flow too. That said, this never meant I wasn't going to have other people in the story. It isn't about Jaune, it isn't about… Whatever, and a gamer story isn't one without at least two lines of stats per 2k words or so. Just because the first few chapters are really stereotype and blank, doesn't mean it's going to go that way. As for the plot? We've barely touched on that. Imagine shoving a dildo up your ass, kids. We're only 0.02% in. I imagine the "glorified ability" part was the one that attracted you, but believe me, it's a bit too early. I also have something similar in planning for the other type of RPG world story, but that will have to wait. The summary is on my profile.**

 **Plasma Dragon 312: Ayyy Lmao-**

 **Guest: Huh, must be unintentional. What were the names?**

 **Guest: We'll be hunting other game soon!**

 **TheLastDarkovian: Ah, I've only played B2, but most of the inspirations from the boss fight come from certain pieces of literature. Not the actual boss, but some abilities Jaune used.**

 **merendinoemiliano: they're very different. Note that kickboxing and boxing are both SPORTS. Maybe they can decently defend you against thugs, perhaps you can win a fight, but it's no good against military-grade shit. Even martial arts is just an art, which is not on par with anything scientifically studied for legitimate combat effectiveness. Overall, the combat training I was talking about refers to remnant's standardized hunter hand-to-hand combat for killing both Grimm and people. In the real world, sure, you can be a world-famous professional boxer and beat up thugs, but it ain't gonna do much against some rookie in the military who's just finished basic training. Don't try it. You'll end up with a broken spine. In other words, M-Arts and Boxing/kickboxing are not really combat styles, more sport/fitness/self defense.**

 **Meh-Master (Guest): XD Fam we all lit roar XD ha**

 **Remzal Von Enili: eat my ass**

I leaned back… Time to sort out the fuckin' loot! Prepare for boring stats!

 _Aooooo…_

Never mind! I grabbed all the stuff into a bag and chucked it into my inventory, de-quipping all the armor so I wouldn't be mistaken for a Grimm. I ran as fast as possible, eventually having to cover my AP as stamina so I could keep running. The world became a blur, and I managed to almost trip a couple of times, but lived through…

At the walls, I used the hidden emergency ladder I set up a little switch for, and took it apart, fearing its discovery would bring investigation. I sneaked my way back into the Arc home, through that old back lane I always took. It was still very early in the morning, so early it was probably around 1. I sneaked to the old room, placing Autumn where it fit… Hopefully no one would discover that it had been fired.

 **You had a sleep of [43]% rating!**

I pushed the notification aside, clearing my head of the morning sogginess. I finished my routine, shower and all…

Why do I feel a sense of déjà-vu?

"Hey, Jaune." Cyan greeted me. "Did you sleep well?"

"Ugh… I thought I heard something last night." I lied.

"Those were gunshots… You have great hearing, Jaune."

"How can you tell?"

"Some of my friends' parents are part of the town guard. A few of them thought they heard thirty or so gunshots, but couldn't mark the location."

"No, I mean, the one where you said I was a great listener."

"No one our part of town has heard it. You must have excellent hearing."

I blinked. _What?_

"Well then, it could've been nothing." I said. Persuasion levelled up somewhere, but I didn't care.

I helped Cyan and mom do a few foods, before finishing my meal and going to school. Today was a friday, so… "Hey," Cornell said.

"Sup."

"What's up?"

"Nothing much. I hear there was a bunch of gunshots last night."

"Yeah, I was close enough to hear them." He said, ruffling his slightly red hair.

"What do you think they were?" I asked, perfectly hiding my identity… Bitch!

"It could be anything, really. Well, it's either someone just defending themselves… Or maybe there was a gunfight."

"Didn't they hear only one type of gun?"

"Oh, right. Probably the Grimm, then." Cornell replied. "I imagine a hunter of some sorts."

I chuckled. "Lone hunters don't come this far into the wilds."

"U-" The be interrupted us. I waved my farewells and rushed off to class.

History… Art… Math… Phys-Ed.

Done! I didn't get any points, but that was no surprise. I chatted with Cornell in just about anything in general. "What do you mean? X-Ray and Vav is one of the most influential franchises to exist!" Cornell protested.

"What I'm trying to say… Is that I don't like it. I think the comic basically avoids the whole point of being a superhero, and I feel like it's sort of dumb." I explained. Seriously, X-Ray and Vav was a terrible comic.

"What…? Fine. I guess everyone has their own preferences." Cornell said. I chatted with him for a while before leaving and heading home.

 _Okay…_ fucking scratch that, X-Ray and dumbass was one of the stupidest things I've ever watched, and can only be defined in two words: "fake bitch-ass shit." Half the crap wasn't even remotely funny, so bad, to the point it wasn't even funny. Deadpool, though? That shit was woke.

What has overcome me?

Why do I even care?

I plopped down on my bed and brought out my sack of loot. Tonight, I would need to get the lien mailed. I brought out a bag I labelled as "empty" and dumped all my empty shells and boxes inside. I then organized the unused shells back to their boxes and wrapped them up in a large cardboard box, labelling it as "12G bird/buck".

I put on my pair of gloves I kept in my inventory, and placed 1500 lien worth in lien cards into a paper bag. I once thought they kind of looked like Monopoly money, but when I was 10, I realized that Monopoly money _was based on lien_.

 **Inventory: 4357 x [Lien]**

 **1500/1340**

A little extra wouldn't hurt… I locked the door and laid out the loot, revealing its contents.

 **4 x Lien**

 **28 x 14mm BR**

 **1 x Lucky Rabbit's 8**

 **1 x Lepus Leap**

 **5 x Major Health Potion**

 **1 x Grimm Bone Heavy Armor-Mask (Leprechaun)**

 **1 x Grimm Bone Heavy Armor- Right Arm (Leprechaun)**

The mask? No, it didn't have any weird effects… It was just… A mask. Not the masquerade ones, just a creepy white bone mask, resembling a rabbit. It was… Ivory. Yes, sort of like ivory. It seemed the higher tiered and major Grimm sets required less pieces of armor, but were special with their respective looks and bonuses.

 **Grimm Bone/Fur/Skin/Shell: Massive Ballistic damage defense, but lower resistance to dust and aura. Higher tiered Grimm will drop armor with trait boosts and set bonuses.**

Awesome!

 **[Item]: Lepus Leap-(Legendary)**

 **The iconic item in the Grimm Leprechaun set, Lepus leap is essential to any rabbit lover.**

 **((Rabbit's Jump)) x2 lower body DEX**

 **((Rabbit's Legs)) x2 Limb/Hand STR**

 **((Lucky Fall)) No fall damage**

Woah! Flavour text warning! The leggings (and footwear) were both of thick white armor that protected most of my legs, but the fur around the armor was black, and an image of a rabbit's face was engraved on the right thigh. I discarded the right leg light armor into a "trash" box I made. The right arm was of similar design, but there was no engraving of any sort, and it felt… Less fancy.

I moved onto my next target, a beautiful pistol that had a very different design than what I'd seen so far. It wasn't like a standard pistol, with the parts all too smooth to be possible.

 **[Item]: Lucky Rabbit's 8-(Rare)**

 **Pew! Pew! Pew! Bam! Bam! Critical! Critical! The LR8 is a revolutionary pistol design in Grimm body constructs, having a calculated precise lethal range of 80 meters. That is, if the sight is even effective at that range.**

 **((Lucky 8)) +50% Critical Damage, weapon makes no sound if projectile is travelling towards a critical spot.**

 **((Aura Channeling)) Despite being constructed from Grimm matter, this weapon is still 90% aura efficient. However, it quickly breaks when over 50AP is channeled.**

 **((Grimm Chambered)) This weapon is chambered for the 14mm BR and LM, dust round compatible.**

Holy shit! There was no safety, but… 14mm was pretty… Not too common. I mean, the 9mm and .22 was soon discovered to be essentially useless against Grimm and targets with aura, so most weapons did not fall behind the .45 in terms of power. There was the 28 Grimm bone ammo that came with this thing, but 7 shots? The magazine would be difficult to make or find… Actually, fuck that, the 28 Bone rounds came with the magazine. With careful motion, I slid one of the magazines into the gun.

I always loved the sound of sliding a full case of ammo into a weapon, but this? This was a awesome! There was a little Grimm ivory trinket at the bottom of the grip, in the shape of yet another cute rabbit. Grimm weapons? I could do with this shit!

I pretended to aim with it, and I noticed the little extra on the end really made it look like something from the future… If you ignored the fact that it was literally made of Grimm. 14mm LM was expensive, but I could handle it with almost 3000 lien to my name. That is, if I could even get fucking ammo. I wasn't of age yet, but there was a contract of some sort. Oh yeah, Ansel had a "hunter-in-training" permit, which allowed you to buy weapons and shit. Also, I'd stolen shit from that store.

Otherwise, we would need to order from Vale, and dad was Beacon approved, so… Shit! Only 28 rounds. Time to fuckin' grind.

 **A/N: Lucky Rabbit is the 12.7 mm pistol from Fallout NV, but without the barrel vent.**

"Jaune?" My mother knocked. I panicked and hopped to my desk, pretending to do homework.

"Come in!" I yelled.

Mom came in, of course, with her apron and all. "Can you help with dinner? I'm going out with Violet and Azure to get some groceries."

"Sure. What would I have to do?"

"Preheat the oven to… 450. The materials are already prepped, so I just need you to dice them up for me. Navy will be helping."

I nodded and left, putting all my shit into organized columns. "Hey, sis."

"Hey, Jaune."

"..." I turned the few switches and buttons the oven had, and brought out a kitchen knife. Navy was dicing some meat, probably for that pasta sauce.

"So, why'd you choose to be a huntress?"

Navy coughed. "Excuse me?"

"I asked dad, and he said you were." My sister stood motionless for a while, before sighing. "No reason. Just wanted... my life to mean something, really."

"Hey, don't feel so down. I robbed a gun store." I said, calmly as I could. "Oka- wait, you WHAT?"

"Yeah, I wanted to use the shotgun, and mom wouldn't let me buy ammo, so…" She blinked. "Is that- is that what the gunshots were?"

"Yep. I felt like killing some Grimm."

"You know what? I've fought a couple Grimm before. What'd you shoot?" She challenged. "A couple Grimm. Some Beowolf and an Ursa."

"How'd you even kill them? Actually, scratch that, how did you even survive?" She said incredulously. "My semblance allows me to hide my emotions from Grimm." I answered. Nav stood there, dicing beef into little pieces. "Bullshit."

I laughed. "How come? I thought semblances could be anything?"

"No, not that. The fact that you killed Grimm is complete… Bullshit."

She was by my side immediately. "Don't get yourself in trouble, Jaune. I'm not sure if it was really you, but-"

"But what?"

She took a big breath. "What if you died, Jaune? I realize the Arc aura is big, and I've tested it myself, but with no training, you're not going to last long out there. What would mom think? What would dad think? Cyan? Violet? Her, what about me? Do you know what I would've thought if you died?"

I was pretty silent. I mean, for a person who played the "what would everyone think?" card, I was less than pleased to respect them. But Navy? I guess… "Fine. I won't. I forgive you for pulling that card on me, but…"

"Why did you do it, Jaune?"

"What do you mean? I just wanted to shoot some Grimm."

"Why would you want to risk your life just to kill a couple of monsters? I mean, I thought that way at first, and I honestly don't know _why_ I actually chose this as a career, but why?"

"Well… I just wanted to be a hunter. Like a lot of people, we don't have or need a reason to. It's just because I want to."

She sighed. "There's always a reason, Jaune… There's always a reason."

"Ugh… I wanted to go to Vale." I deadpanned.

"Vale? What for?"

"I won this ticket to an event… And I want to train myself so I can get there without dying." I answered.

The click of a door answered us, and we both shut up to start working on the dishes again. I was basically done anyways, but I felt like talking to Nav again… But that would have to wait for another day.

 **-(69)-**

Maybe I wouldn't sneak out again…

Fuck, it was dangerous out here. I'd been lucky to encounter something that could be countered with my limited skill set. A Lepus was easy prey, being one of the stupidest and weakest Grimm on the menu. I could potentially do it again, but I'd have to wait for the situation to calm down. There was no doubt in my mind that someone had already connected the dots between the robbery and the shootings, so I could wait… I'd have to conserve my ammo, though. I don't know how many criticals it took to kill Grimm with the Rabbit, but 28 shots weren't looking in my direction.

Overall? I didn't know what to think of it. Fuck my low WIS, I was improving that shit instantly. I assigned 4 points to **Experience Judgement** and 2 points into both lower and upper body DEX. With two points left, I gave it to **STR Chest/Back/Hip/Abdomen**. Now, without my shitty point assignment skills, I could think about my next move.

I could sneak into the town barracks to see training… Recruitment was starting soon. I really had no idea how to fight, just a few good guns and an aura-protected and conditioned body. I was seriously underpowered, and my sister was already level 15, easily on par with the 20-ish of the guards. My choice was to get more bodily training and occasionally hunt Grimm…

Sneaking in to see recruit training? Actually, this was an idea I could get by. I sealed up the package of lien and made for town centre, where I could mail things. I had a fake letter in hand, pretending to reach inside the large box. However, this was only to take the package from my inventory and place it inside the box. Application? Yeah, that got me a point in application. Good thinking, Jaune!

Well, recruitment was in exactly 6 days, so I planned to level sneak until then to help with the shit. Sneak was a skill that literally levelled up when I was undetected, something very easy… Studying on the rooftops would help!

 **+1 to (INT Memory/Learning)!**

 **Sneak levelled up! Sneak levelled up!**

 **[Skill]: Persuasion-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 5, 50% Cost: N/A**

 **This is the folklore myth of the first persuasion. "Arf (Hey)." " Gark (Hey)." "Gneurshk (Can you hand me over that rock over there)." "Arf, Bark (Yeah, sure)."**

 **+5% Success chance**

I sighed and hopped down from the five-story "mansion" that was Arc estate, enjoying a nice dinner with everyone.

"Jaune, what did you think about the body conditioning?" My mother asked.

"It's tough, but I can handle it. I'm really starting to see a difference." I answered optimistically.

"Are you really going to be a hunter?" Azure asked, Amber eyes scanning mine.

"Yep. Pretty sure."

"How come?" Mom asked.

I shrugged. "Not really. I've thought about all the implications and the bad of being a hunter, but I… Guess I just want to be." Using the same answer from before.

Dad nodded. "That's normal. After all, your ancestors were _all_ hunters. Mom winced, but didn't say anything.

My mom groaned. "Have you been following the diet I've recommended?"

I choked. "Uh… Yeah… I have."

 **Persuasion failed!**

"You should start immediately… After all, a boy needs to grow."

" _Really, mom?_ 'A boy needs to grow'?" Violet complained.

"Yes, it's not as much of a problem as you would expect. Being short has its advantages." My dad said, not being a short person.

"I hate all of you." Navy muttered.

 **Navy Arc: 142.79M (4'6)**

Lol.

The next day, I jumped home, satisfied with the decent progress in physical stats i made. Being above everyone in your school… Felt great. Fuckin' awesome, except there was really no use for it yet. Dominating all the PE kids was no biggie, and it was really more of a fucking warmup now.

Still, a long shot to becoming a hunter… A long way indeed. I'd observed some hunters on TV, pausing videos of Vale to search for trainees in the background. From what I had been able to gather, hunters scored 40 in at least three areas, and a 50 in reaction time… Wow.

I was halfway there, I mean. Not too bad.

 **STR score: 29**

 **Limb/Hand: 27**

 **Chest/Back/Hip/Abdomen: 27**

 **Flexibility: 33**

 **END score: 24**

 **Inner Endurance: 23**

 **Limb Toughness: 24**

 **Body Toughness: 24**

 **DEX score: 25**

 **Upper Body: 21 (2)**

 **Lower Body: 21 (2)**

 **Hand Agility: 31 (2)**

 **Reaction Time: 31 (2)**

Not bad! I hummed and thought about training. An overwhelming sense of guilt and anxiety overcame me, and I wondered for a very long time, exactly why I'd sneaked out all that time ago to shoot rabbits and kill Grimm. Until… Yes, I would have to wait. Progress would have to wait, and most of the time could be spent with my sisters or studying. So, with a weary heart, and a slightly disappointed mind, I came back home, ditching thoughts about armor and weapons and all that nonsense away from me. I could sit down and meditate, but I thought the calm before the sleep was good too, so…

Good night?

 **-(69)-**

We screwed around in town, with summer approaching soon. V3 was in June, and today was literally the fuckin' first of May. I'd given up on trying to gather loot to get to Vale, and instead opted for the fun things in life.

"Jaune, how's this look?" Violet tried yet another combination of clothes.

"I think you know, but the blouse isn't a really good fit with that skirt… Try a different colour. Maybe your namesake instead?" I suggested.

"Come on! Let's get something to eat!" Cyan dragged our merry asses over to some food stand, and i ordered some random shit with my 3000 fuckin' lien.

"Hey, uh… I have an announcement to make." Navy's hands were now crossed in a polite form. "I'm training to be a huntress."

 **Ice Cqueenm**

 **Lv 17**

 **Navy "Creme" Arc**

"..." For a long time, everyone say on the beaches, without response. Violet broke the fast. "Knew it! Where's my money, Az?"

Azure groaned and handed 15 lien to Vi, finishing the bet. "So, why the long wait? Why tell us now instead of… January or… never?" Cyan asked, mouth full of the last bits of salad.

"Are you kidding? Mom would have freaked out!"

"Tis' true… Tis' true…"

 **It's the police n****!**

 **Lv 32**

 **Jane Arc**

"Well, now her reaction will be even worse once you tell her…"

"She's right, you know." I politely informed.

"Jaune! You traitor!" Navy yelled. "You were supposed to back me up!"

"Nah. At least I told mom!"

"You weren't planning to! Dad spilled…"

"I was planning to tell her."

"No, you weren't."

"Yes I was."

"No, you weren't."

I laughed, and… This was fun. I'd thought about myself, the world, my family… And I felt great. WIS really helped me value a little something in life. Violence was overrated… Maybe a… Peaceful approach would be good.

This was a time of peace! Who gives a shit about the Faunus labourers… They were sacrificing themselves for a good cause; the welfare of everyone else. Fuck everyone, I do as I fucking please.

"Come on, we're leaving." The others were already finished up with the teasing and the arguments, so I followed.

Without much trouble yet again, school passed on, and before I knew it, I was enjoying a casual stroll through my house. I heard two voices talking in the background of the main living room, and I hid to listen, using subtitles to help.

"Mom… Oh, how do I say this… I want to go to Vale." Nav offered.

"How come? For the festival?" Mom said.

My eavesdropping hadn't gone too far… this was a great opportunity!

"Umm… you know about those dating websites…?"

"Yes, but go on."

"Well, I met someone there, and they live in Vale, and I…."

"They invited you." Mom replied.

It was then that i realized that V3 was essentially an alternative to Vale's own festival, probably conveniently set up so a lot more tourists could visit. Well, not exactly tourists, but people from other places that wanted to attend both V3 and the festival. Like, transportation between villages and kingdoms were difficult, and companies were more interested in transporting people to the festival anyways, so…

"Oh, that's so sweet…"

The conversation continued long into the hour, and I barely managed through without barfing by turning off my subtitles. Finally, I found my chance. "Ooh… Vale? I wanna go too!"

"Navy…" My sister looked at me with so much hate, that I would have not died, because looks cannot kill.

"Take your brother…"

"No."

"With you."

"But it's just a festival! He wouldn't be in it for just _that_!" I frowned. I thought she already knew?

"Hey! I want to have a life-changing experience in Vale! Imagine all the lessons we could take home!"

Mom was convinced at that exact moment. "Take your brother with you."

Navy groaned. "Fine, but don't mess it up for me, ok?"

Once mom was out of the room, my sister turned her glare towards me. "Alright… Jaune. Why do you _really_ want to go?" I smirked.

"Remember that convention I told you about?" I asked.

"What…? Oh, of course. Are you _sure_ the festival actually overlaps the thing?"

"No duh. I've been checking… every day."

Navy sighed. "Fine. Just… Try not to be there at all, ok? I'm trying to make a good impression! Plus, are you even sure it's a legitimate event?"

"It is! Thousands of people attend it!"

Her trademark smirk crossed her lips. "Very well, I'll take you… But I guess you know wha-"

"I'll buy you 100 lien worth of ice cream."

Her eyes lit up. "Yay!"

I briefly wondered why no one was giving a shit about my life and safety, but… My mom burst into the room.

"Jaune, when you are in Vale, there's a small chance you'll be faced with the threat of-" Shit, I jinxed myself. I 'zoomed out' of the conversation, ignoring-

"So just ask you father for some advice on self-defense, okay?" I nodded.

"Sure."

 **-(69)-**

I approached dad immediately after the encounter with mom. "Hey, dad."

"Huh?"

"Mom asked for me to learn some self-defence, so…" He sighed and went downstairs, to a room big enough to be considered… Big enough to be considered… Ah, fuck it.

"This is the gym… let's get started!"

I nodded enthusiastically and started the lesson, which i just discussed a schedule for. Dad raised his fists. "Get into position." I did so and tried to copy, but made my own little adjustments."Good," Dad said. "Don't try too hard to get the perfect position. Let it come naturally."

I nodded. "Now, throwing a punch. Like… that. Let the strength come from your stance. Twist your punch. Now, attack me."

I nodded and threw a quick punch, jabbing at his aura.

 **[Skill]: Hand-to-Hand Combat-(Passive-(Rank I) Lv 1, 15%**

"Now, kid. Let's get real here. Self-defence is complete bullshit. It's takes years to learn, and it isn't effective at all against anything with a bit of training." I gulped.

"So I'm going to teach you… aura channeling. Make sure your hits are fast enough that they can't see it coming, or make you run fast enough to get out of danger."

"So… how do I exactly do this?" I asked. As exciting of a concept this was, I was still confused.

"This thing will bring aura to specific parts of your body, making it extend the original little boost you get from aura. Now, focus on that energy, and bring it out." He calmed down and closed his eyes, and a white light nearly seared my vision.

It was harder than it sounded.

Way harder. Concentration was easy to break, and meditation was actually theorized to be a worse way of learning, since meditation was all about _not_ thinking of something. I closed my eyes, and on the fifteenth try, I opened them to reveal a soft glowing light, in the colour of my grey aura.

"Not bad… Now, move that to your arms. Let it flow."

I tried again and again, eventually feeling, but only 3 in quantity, appeared in my arms. I want released it, feeling half of it go back to my aura. I concentrated tens, perhaps hundreds of times.

 **[Skill]: Aura Channeling-(Active)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 50% Cost: 10AP/^/sec**

 **When man found light, they had little of it, and could not use it. Over time, they focused their light to torch with their flames, lightening their hearts and paving the first step for humanity.**

 **Every 10AP, +5 to all STR, END, and DEX stats.**

 **Only applies to a single body part, multiple channelings at a time possible.**

 **Channel to heal a specific part faster, but only 25% efficient.**

The skill was still very difficult to use, but I managed through. By the end of it, I could briefly hold it.

"Now, punch me." I didn't hesitate. Channeling two stacks of aura to my right arm, I threw my punch. This time, dad's aura was visibly damaged, flaring slightly. Otherwise, it did nothing. We practiced for long, quite a while, if you ask me. I didn't have a 100% success rate, but I felt like I could do big damage to any human thug, especially ones with no aura.

Dad showed me a few basic kicks, mainly low ones, since big kicks made you very vulnerable. I calmed down and circled my dad, preparing to attack him. The man pretended to be a thug with no protection and skill, being easily taken down despite his large size.

Dad fumbled through his pockets. "Well, that was the basics of it. I'll walk you through more defence and a few routines after. But first, most criminals will be carrying this thing." He juggled a knife in his hands.

"I'll teach you how to defend against it…" I frowned.

Dad slashed at me with human speed, and i jumped away. "Running away… try not to, unless you have a clear route." I nodded. "Try to de-escalate the situation. Talk with them, but don't get too comfortable."

"If it comes to fighting, try to surprise them. A quick strike to the throat or groin will disable them pretty well." Dad's reasoning was fair, and I found myself agreeing. Self-defence? Lol, fuck that shit, we beatin' them criminals back to prison!

The hell?

Dad held out his knife and approached me. With a quick strike I learned, I elbowed his throat. We repeated several different situations and exercises. Eventually, dad handed me a knife and taught me to use it. Our spare training dummy was slashed to pieces through simple aura channeling.

 **[Skill]: Hand-to-Hand Combat-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 2, 30%**

The fighting continued, and my stamina drained at a quick pace. I used a bit of my aura to heal Dad fluently dodged all my attacks, and leaned in at a small mistake I made to counter-attack. I stepped back and avoided the stabs, 31 reaction time thankfully being fast enough to do so. I channeled three stacks of aura to my arms and swiped many times at dad, ending the supposed attacker. "Good," He said. "You're making quick progress." For the first time, I couldn't agree more.

 **[Skill]: Knife Mastery-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 7, 14%**

"Your fighting style should also reflect your large aura, being able to tank hits. I won't let you practice that right now… Though being more reckless is a risk."

it, and continued. There were no bodily improvements, but this wasn't as taxing as any of the workouts anyway. I pocketed the sharp instrument. "The last thing… guns." If I could get panicked, I sort of did. Only slightly, though.

"In the case of a gun, and you have nowhere to run… Charge at em'. I'll teach you a few different approaches."

I was then taught a bit about basic defence against bullets. In mid-range scenarios, I might channel enough aura to dodge a bullet, but in a corner? Probably gonna have to take the hit. Well, I didn't actually have to block a bullet in my training, as I soon discovered. "Again!" I turned around and sent aura to my entire body, but mostly my legs, going faster than the human trigger-finger could react to. I channeled more aura to my arms and disarmed the weapon. "Not bad… Not bad…"

I smiled and moved on to the defensive portion of the class. My END score was… Not too high. I mean, 24 was already impressive, but it was nowhere good enough to block an aura-charged stab or dust round.

"Come back tomorrow, same time!" Dad yelled as I departed.

In three days, a mere three days, I was off on the airship. There were tickets being sold live, so I decided to hop in earlier than usual. Navy was shortly with me, and I couldn't help but feel excited. I mean, this would be my first time in a city! With a slight drain from my fucking magical wallet, I paid for the ride, boarding the airship…

 **Quest Failed: Workout!**

Uh huh… Yep, I was failing that. There wasn't much to take from it, and my STATS were already above most trainees my age anyway, provided they were even considering hunting. Most combat schools had a 14-year-old thing, so I wouldn't be able to apply yet. Plus, there wasn't much combat experience required. That was only necessary for people without hunter parents.

Vale? I imagined a fun experience of stabbing people and getting shot! How fun!

I'm only joking, of course, but all the worry from my parents was making me think that getting robbed was a real possibility. Well, they were trusting two teens to go to a big city… A little too strange, if you ask me.

 **A/N: Hello, everyone! Announcement: I'll be taking a short week-2 week break from this, just to do some other shit I have planned. As always, remember to tell me what you think, review, and I need a fucking beta, you little pieces of shit. How do I guarantee highest product quality if no one reads it for me?**

REVIEW!


	6. TutorialIntro

I stepped into the Valean airship, curiously exploring every little corner of something I had not seen for almost a decade. The foreign design and slightly exposed dust circuits made me worry a bit about safety, but after reading a bit about them, I found this was an impossible fear. Airships were advanced, perhaps too advanced.

Jaune was making his own little observations, completely excited by the idea of finally flying on a machine. After all, we had only seen bullheads and supply ships. I found us two seats near an observation deck, and seeing my home slowly dissipate beneath us was a… strange experience. Buildings and the mansion became little pieces of a puzzle, too small to be observed. Ansel was truly a small place!

We didn't speak for most of the journey, but instead opted to distract myself with the view. What would Vale be like? How big was the city? What kind of person would Boysen be like? Would he show up? Of course, Navy, don't fool yourself! The festival? Well, the main goal of this journey wasn't the festival, but rather the people I would meet there. Pulling myself out of the thoughts, we took in Vale from a bird's eye view. At first glance, I felt the stories of discrimination were exaggerated, but once I looked closer? It was there. A White Fang protest was taking place in what looked like the another airport, supposedly for not serving Faunus. Poor bastards…

An unfamiliar rush of colour and blood covered my veins, and the world was once again filled with colour and light. This would be excellent fun!

Jauney and I rushed off the ship, remembering to take one last look at the vehicle. How fun! As the familiar face, one I'd only seen on camera, move by my eyes, Jaune vacated me before he could say where he was going! Oh, right, that game convention.

 **IEAT Studios Presents**

"So, you have 6 siblings?" His brown eyes scanned over my… Probably matching ones.

"Yeah. How about you? You have any siblings?"

"Nope. Only child here. Well, I must ask, what was it like?"

"Better than most would think. My mom trusted us with everything, and we did fine."

His handsome features looked rugged for a second. "Independent, eh?" The flirt wasn't too good, but the only thing it brought to my face was a smirk.

"Yeah… Come on, this shuttle will take us to the festival!" We boarded a two-level… bus? I wasn't too sure about my first experience in a land vehicle, but I supposed it would be fine.

There were shops and stores, more than I could ever imagine in variety, more than I ever thought would be in the range of "useful". Like, "Sun's Deadly Lasers" and "Not Anymore Blankets". Restaurants… Convenience stores? Thought that was a myth! "First time here, eh?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, first time in a city."

"You told me all about Ansel-"

"Introduce me to Vale."

"Well, it all started-"

 **A FAN Studios Production**

We passed the various stalls set up on the road, which had been blocked by the VPF to clear more space for the festival. Hundreds, if not thousands gathered around the five main entrances, hoping to enter the main indoor concert for the show. Boysen was sweating slightly, but that was expected in this kind of weather.

The sun glared upon us, forcing us to giggle and bring our drinks inside. "I know it's kind of late to ask… but how was the ride?"

"Eh, it was my first time in an airship! It wasn't too bad, but I mostly enjoyed the view."

He rubbed the back of his brown hair sheepishly. "Sightseeing? Yeah, the view is always quite nice."

I hushed him. "Shush, the show's starting!"

" _Still haven't really found what I'm lookin' for."_

" _Silk road's down and the weather is poor."_

" _Pay what we have and live on the door…"_

" _Vale Remanants, Vale Remnants, yeah, Vale Remnants…"_

 **BOOM!**

My eyes widened as a shrapnel tore the singers to little pieces. Before anyone else had time to react, a fiery explosion shook apart the center, setting everything on fire. I shook out of my awe and shook my b… friend. "Come on, we have to go!"

He nodded bleakly and blinked several times, eventually finding a cloth in his hand, and drizzled some onto it. I stole the fabric from his hands and cut it to two with a pocket knife, stuffing one in his face, much to his surprise. "No time to waste!" My initial panic was gone, but dread still was at the bottom of my heart. _What was going on?_

Eventually, the crowd recovered and gained guts to scream. The fire hadn't reached us yet, but I was not willing to see so many lives go.

"Everybody out! Don't rush!" Well, I dragged Boysen and high-tailed out of the building, leaving hundreds behind us. I mean, this would be all pointless if we didn't survive.

I turned my head to yet _another_ fucking explosion, and I admit, terrified was the right word. A wave of fire too fast for the human eye to catch swallowed hundreds. I had to save them! I know… Was this how Julius felt in his first battle? "Come on, we have to help!"

Boysen slightly protested, but agreed. Soon, most of the population that had been in the various buildings flooded the light beige stone of the plaza, in a constant shroud of terror and panic that was impossible to suppress. I wanted to scream, shout, yell that it would be alright, but I realized this would be impossible.

A team of figures slipped past the sight of authority, in an unscathed festival office building behind thick glass doors designed to keep out the heat. My eyes narrowed and I followed, opening the door and hiding behind a pillar. I dared not look, but listening was fine.

"Fuck it, Mar, fuck you. We were gonna fire on the crowd first, but you had to get all pussy and pick off all these office _humans_." The way they spoke quickly revealed their race. _But… Why?_

"Hey, who's the pussy here? You can't kill a few thousand unarmed civilians? It's not that fucking hard. Here, let me demonstrate: you take your fucking gun, and you point at their ugly faces!"

"The fucking police would kill us!"

"Cut it, fuckfaces, Mar and Gren are going to take care of this building and check on those bombs, while we get to work outside!" My eyes widened, and Boysen swallowed some green stuff that was threatening to make its way up his throat. From what I could tell, the… terrorists? Was I really dealing with terrorists? Were they behind this? It didn't matter. What mattered was that, like a good hunter, I'd take these fuckers down for good. "Be careful. Stay behind me." I whispered.

"Get into position!"

The group split apart, animal features present. Two rushed upstairs, while the remaining spread. As the first few sprinted towards my entrance, I took a deep breath.

"What the fu-" I punched and sent strikes towards various vital areas, disabling the Faunus for time being.

I flipped out the pocket knife, sending it flying to the back of the team. Unfortunately, this meant the second one in front of me had enough time to ready a swing. I twisted my head out of harm's way and attacked the thug's upper body. The Faunus collapsed, holding shoulder and arm in pain. The first one recovered, and punched. I flared my aura to my arms.

Faunus 1 made a large dent in my aura, forcing me back several meters. I was slightly winded, but the Faunus raised a handgun, scorching deep into my aura once again. I growled and flew towards the terrorist, most likely killing him. I sidestepped a flurry of bullets from Faunus 3, clutching a small knife in his shoulder.

I jumped and ended him, turning my attention to a group of two in front of me, leaping towards them. Faunus B reacted and fired, but missed. I dodged and kicked, taking hits with aura to compensate my lack of powerful skill and semblance. Upstairs or help prevent a possible massacre… The police and hunters would probably handle the massacre and I… The bombs! I had to stop them!

Boysen shivered. "Are y- are you a hunter?"

"Yeah. Come on, I'm going to stop them."

I ascended the steps, feeling a bitter yet sick mist of pain cover my mind. My aura calmed me down slightly, but nothing else seemed to help. I swallowed and kicked open the door, finding…

Dear gods.

Bodies were strewn across the complex, filled with bullets. A frightened VPF officer had her stomach emptied. Boysen whimpered.

I… what? This… why?

I pushed back tears of frustration and continued, following a trail of bullet casing. Blood threatened to spill on my shoes, but that was beyond care at this point.

I eventually found the terrorists gathered outside on a large balcony, overlooking the destruction below. Heh, easy pickings! I smirked and stepped on an achilles' heel, enjoying the shriek of pain. They would pay for their acts! I threw my knife at Faunus Beta, killing the woman instantly. A kill? Wait.

Kill?

I'd… killed?

My aura flared dramatically, signaling heavy damage. I stumbled forward, allowing Faunus Alpha to kick me. I- i- rolled and rolled, probably breaking my nose.

Aura quickly rushed to fix it, but I stood, with blurry vision to try and retaliate. _How did this go so wrong?_ With a battle-cry, I brawled the one I'd ambushed earlier, sending him to the ground. My face was met with heavy resistance, reducing my already low aura. _I can't let these fucking bastards… even have fucking reinforcements!_

I felt a large hand of their backup try and pull me up, but I closed my swollen eye tighter and kicked and punched and got hit and kicked and punched and kicked and got hit and punched and kicked and punched and got hit and kicked and-

The foreign feeling of scorch and metal travelled from my throat, embedding itself inside. I tried to cough, at least my mind told me to, but it did so again, and my aura flashed and it happened oh why and oh I realized this must be a bullet and why but how and I tried and tried again to cough but the tears were coming and the metal was going up more and throat was probably torn out and another one yet another and another and more and more and more oh gods why

I don't know when, but it seemed there was a calm before the final storm. I tried coughing, tried twitching, but it was pointless. Above me, that fucking shit was blurred and blurred as fuck, pointing that object at me.

"You… have…. human… abandon?… pay… you."

I didn't respond, but twitched and tried coughing but all I coughed was blood and it rushed out. Served litres of it, probably. Whose blood was it? Well, I hope it's Boysen's, that little shit ditched m-

BAM!

 **Navy Arc has died!**

 **A/N:**

 **Wee-woo-wee-woo, here comes the ambulance boys!**

 **Dark Durian: Ayy sneak shotgun beast 100 LMAO**

 **Remzal Von Enili: I like eating the shank of a cow! How bout' you guys?**

 **Plasma Dragon 312: Don't worry, just have fun!**

 **Meh-Master: Ah, you'll be doing the next chapter. This one isn't that important or long, and doesn't even feature Jaune.**

 **TheLastDarkovian: Navy: Lets have some fun! *Gets shot by terrorists***

 **Overall, this will be a short chapter. Really just here for the plot, fuck that shit. Maybe I rushed it, but hey, I'm here to learn.**

 **-(69)-**

Navy Arc's remaining eye fluttered.

 **Please select a name:**

She tried to smile, but that came at the cost of breaking her already bruised lips. A name, eh? A new name…

 **Ice Fragments of the Broken Past**

 **Lv 18**

 **Neopolitan Arc**


	7. The

I carried her and ignored the loot, running past the flames and fire, to the closest ambulance in sight. I pushed past an injured man. "Hey! I need help, please!" I shouted, much to the dismay of others.

"Fuck off, kid! We got others here that need helpin' too!" A hulk of a man stood up to me.

I narrowed my eyes and kicked him in the solar plexus, and a small gasp was all anyone heard before he collapsed to the ground in pain. I snarled and yelled at the stunned paramedic. She shook out of her daze and fearfully accepted Navy, the panic in the crowds drawing attention away from us.

I walked around anxiously, waiting for news.

 _Bzzzzzz_

I jumped out of my seat and brought oh my phone.

 _Mom_

"Jaune, jaune! Ju-just, are you alright? I was so worried when your sister wasn't picking up!"

"Mom, are you fucking kidding me? There was a terrorist attack at the festival! Navy's in critical condition!" I screamed in anger. How could she be… so weird?

"..."

"Tell me you're joking, Jaune…"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm joking… WATCH THE FUCKING NEWS!" I slammed my fist one the 'end call' button, completely frustrated by my mom's obliviousness. Several observers backed off carefully. The device rang again, but I turned it off before it could continue bothering me. Shit! I heard the clink of several operating tools behind me, but I ignored it.

Maybe I could relax… being angry wasn't going to help anyone.

So, I sat there for perhaps the longest time of my life, feeling an odd sense of emptiness as the Mind cleared away all my worries and emotions of life. It was, unfortunately, the most peaceful 6 hours of my life. I eventually started thinking about it all again, but I distracted myself by distributing stats and scrolling through my list of skills.

 **[Title]: Saviour of Vale**

 **Preventing the deaths of thousands in a planned event by Faunus revolutionaries has granted you the rank of hero. Be brave, and may the axes cross once again.**

 **((+5 to all STATS)) ((+50% HP/SP/AP Regen in Vale)) ((Further +15 to all STATS in Vale))**

 **[Job]: CQB Artist-(Rank II)**

 **Combines from [Shotgunner], [Knifer], [Brawler], and several undiscovered jobs. +20% Mastery speed, +2 to STR, DEX, and END in combat.**

 **[Title]: Faunus Killer**

 **Slaying of many Faunus, and Faunus only grants you glory and progress to humanity's solid place as the superior race. Continue this holy crusade, champion!**

 **((+10% Damage to Faunus))**

 **[Job]: Hero-(Rank I)**

 **You're a hero, Jaune! Jaunero? Jaunehero? Jauneo? I dunneo. +6 to all STATS, +100 HP/SP/MP capacity.**

Holy mother of the grail of the hero of the golden lord! I equipped my new shit immediately, and gods, the feel of having stats rivalling a hunter trainee 5 years above me felt _great_. Saviour of Vale and Hero were both great in terms of bonuses, and made me feel a little better about myself.

Well, that got me thinking about Navy again. She did far beyond what was expected of a huntress, and suffered for it. She'd saved thousands of people from dying, and deserved just as much credit as I did. Probably even more than me, as she was the one to motivate me into going anyways. Fuck, this was bad. The Mind kept me from toppling over in a mess of psychological pain, but I was far from being not angry.

"Sir?" I turned my head to the surgeon that had opened the door.

"Is she alright?" I dared asked, heart bouncing.

"Good news; she's stable…" I 'phewed' in relief. "Wait," I said. "There's a catch to this, right?"

The surgeon had a look of disdain and pity on his face. "She won't ever be able to talk again… i'm sorry,"

I knew it! Those bastards- no, motherfuckers had ruined her life! However, that momentary spur of madness was erased when I realized that _all_ of them were dead. After most of their little squad started dying out, the final bombs were detonated by someone, toppling the entire operation. The anger… the anger was replaced with a hollow sense of guilt and sadness that i had been unable to do anything.

Not that I could have done anything; regret was pointless.

"Th-there- you did your best, doctor. There's nothing to be sorry for." I teared, barely able to stay still.

"Mr… Arc, right? We'll need to get some things on paper. Follow me, please." A nurse of some sort came up to us, holding a clipboard. Dr. Green left, supposedly to take a break.

I sighed. For once, there was… something in my life. I never really thought it would come to this, and I thank the mind for helping me react and make the right choices… Staying calm was a virtue in itself. I pulled out Navy's passport from her bag as identification, supplying the hospital with details of the situation. A policeman of some sort soon arrived, writing everything down into a scroll.

"So, care to tell me the whole story? Don't worry, take your time." He said understandingly.

 **Police Dude**

 **Lv 19**

 **Almond Chestnut**

"How do I say this… well, I'll start from when I got to the convention… V3."

 _I slipped into the conference center, having shown my pass to the front. I was… on time. Thousands of people gathered around stands and screens, excitedly discussing video games and whatnot. I couldn't help myself either, looking at all the shooters and exciting shit._

 _UG_Forums/IC: We're at the COR line-up, feel free to join us!_

 _I asked for a few directions, mostly people who had t-shirts of the game itself… Probably not going to get one of those. I mean, it's literally just a shitty t-shirt. I made my way to the showing of the new game, and… I was thoroughly disappointed. Worst game ever, ever. Who the fuck was in charge of making Call of Remnant? I fucking hated it. X-Ray and Vav: The Game… Suck my dick, and I threatened to burst into laughter. What the fuck? There was a group of strange people, huddled around a screen showing some animated girl with… the fuck? People were weird! I narrowly avoided them, trying my best to keep my eyes and mind off the strange image._

A thud and a wave of something made its way to my eardrums, shaking the foundation of the structure. A few people shrieked, but all was fine. What's going on? The crowd panicked, either staying still in uncertainty and fear or fleeing the convention center itself.

 **NEW! Quest: What the Fuck is Going on? (Okay, maybe I didn't tell him about this)**

I dashed outside, and… shit! Navy could be out there! In the festival! I ran and ran, channeling a bit of aura to my legs to pass around those annoying cars and pedestrians alike. I reached the festival itself, where a thin line of smoke was rising from plumes of fire and wreckage. I scanned the crowd gathered in the central plaza, trying to find… No. I scaled a building, eventually reaching its roof to get a look at the entire thing.

 **Ice Cqueenm**

 **Lv 17**

 **Navy Arc**

 **Guyz**

 **Lv 3**

 **Boysen Brown**

The two walked inside a building, and I scaled down, intent on tracking them down. There was still a constant flood of people that tried to make their way out, but it seemed the police were trying to control the situation. Seriously, people were idiots; sheep, but with more stupidity and shitty opinions. I pushed a wave of people to the ground, eventually reaching the building. The hell are they doing?

"Shit… Ross just radioed me, there's apparently a hunter up there. We'll split up. Group 1, with me! The rest of you get into the firing line!" Some guy ordered. The rest of the Faunus split up again, taking different routes to higher and lower ground, supposedly to get a better shot… whatever they were planning.

Well, probably an attack of some sort. I'd heard about guerrilla warfare to cripple enemy supply lines… Maybe this was to cripple kingdom morale? But what could they benefit from this? I found no time to answer, as I slid the large knife through Sam's ribs. I know, who's Sam? Oh, you mean the fuckers that were attacking a national event? The kids were around 8 to 14 in level…

"Shoot him!"

I hummed and zoomed past the bullets, stabbing the pleasant individuals that were preparing to attack my sister. Bitch! I weaved around an attempt to gun-bash, and despite the lack of personal knowledge I had on this subject, speed and strength were good virtues. I channeled some aura to my arms, and stabbed the attacker around 15 times… eh, he'll live!

These fuckers were so getting it! I distributed a good portion of aura to my body, moving around a sword. While I had no skill for countering this, my physical stats were more than enough to overpower the attackers. Starting to get anxious about Navy and her friend, I hurried with my job.

 **Faunus Employee at Dunkin' Donuts**

 **Lv 13**

 **Shady Wells**

Ha! I sent a heavy kick too fast to catch at Shady, and he attempted at catching it, but the force shattered his arms. Thank you, **Lepus Leap**! I straddled Shady and stabbed him several times. I mean, if I was going to get evidence, might as well keep them alive. Plus, not really into murder, ya know? Better to let them shame themselves in prison. I rolled out of a few rounds to some cover, and looked up, bringing out Autumn's Gift. Yeah, I stole that on my way out.

BAM! BAM!

The shots rang out, and knocked out the guns of the two remaining Faunus. I vaulted over the cover with an aura kick, sending one flying into a wall and the other filled with stabs.

 **+1500XP**

Huh? I killed one of them? True to my imagination, a level 15 let out a weakened groan, dying due to severe blood loss. Shit. I mean, these people deserved to die, but did I really have to kill them? The law shoul-

Ah, fuck that. Whoever said the law was right had been bullshitting us from the start. Law was an idea, and it was not the law at all. You didn't break the rules of physics by jaywalking! The only true law of the world was science, something we could manipulate, but always bow down to. Law was just a concept; a guide the council recommended us to follow for safety. Law was not a higher power that was better at judging people, we were the fucking judges ourselves, and i sincerely detest those who believed otherwise. Leave it to the weaklings to figure themselves out and suck council dick.

 **+3 to (WIS Experience Judgement) and (INT Application)!**

I stopped kneeling in front of the dead man and collected my loot. 150 lien… great! Some… ammo?

 **[Item]: 14MM LM-Fire-(Ammo) x 18**

 **Here, for your gun, mate!**

Oh! So the gamer could supply ammo with the… His body slowly dissolved, becoming more lien cards and a fistful of shotgun ammo. But why didn't this happen before?

"What the fuck is going on-" Faunus surrounded me on both ends, screw this ring-shaped design! I fired a few rounds to get their attention, so they wouldn't start killing… everyone. I ran upstairs, catching glimpse of a brown blur in the next building. Shit… It was that Boysen guy! I loaded some normal shots into Autumn.

Two faunus took slow steps to move across a narrow hallway, machine-guns pointed in front of them. I turned, firing two shots, damaging their weapons and aura. I channeled some aura into Autumn and bashed the first in the face and kicked her in the stomach. I kept a steady watch on her aura, draining it quickly so she would fall unconscious due to aura exhaustion. Yeah, that only happened if aura was drained too quickly for them to keep up.

I reloaded and swept at the other faunus' legs, sending the guy into the realm of unconsciousness. These weren't video-game grunts, as evil as they were. They were still normal people, but if I had to, I would kill them. Yeah, that was reasonable, right? The rest of the faunus were catching up, so I rushed after the three that were heading towards my sister.

I gasped at the scene bathed in brilliant summer light before me; three faunus standing over her dying body as one readied a gun at her. Navy was knocked back by the sheer force of bullet after bullet; at least 3 of them by my count. To where, I didn't care, but there was another priority! I screamed in anger and channeled 125 AP into Autumn, igniting the two dust rounds and triggering the perk.

A bright wave of red dust eclipsed over the Faunus. I didn't care if they lived or not, I just… Navy! I dropped by Navy, inspecting the several wounds. Her throat was torn apart at its core, but i refused to let up hope. There was very little I could do, paired with basically no time.

 **+1300XP!**

 **+1400XP!**

 **+1700XP!**

 **You levelled up! You levelled up!**

 _My heart slowed for perhaps one beat as the paramedic and field medical officers started their work. "What in the seven seas… Is this one even alive?"_

" _Check her pulse, Josh!"_

" _Here it goes… oh, gods! She's still alive! Lav, the kit?"_

 _In my little panic/relief phase, I didn't' exactly notice when the vehicle sped off… yeah, great job, Jaune! Start daydreaming when your sister is on the brink of death! I nearly cried and sped after the vehicle, leaving the carnage and fire behind me._

"And that's the gist of it." I explained. The officer nodded, puckering his lips and taking a moment to finish the report, which was typed neatly into a scroll.

 _10:47PM_

Well, I didn't bother with most of the specifics, and completely altered the actual story. I just said that I rushed from the convention to the festival, leaving the forums people behind and found her injured. To make it even more believable, I pointed out me and Navy's basic training, and how we were unable to take down the attackers. There were no heroics, and I honestly felt like Navy didn't deserve all that shit after becoming a permanent mute. I didn't think what actually happened via flashback would be believable, so…

Yeah, I lied to the police. Persuasion must have levelled up at least six times, probably because of how off my story was from the actual thing.

"Don't be surprised to hear more from us," he mentioned. "I'd get you some place to stay, but the emergency shelters are packed." I was about to say something, but Almond interrupted.

"Oh, sorry. You have a registered aura and combat training… stay safe, kid. I'll take you there." I hopped into the vehicle and chatted with the officer for a while, before waving and entering that hotel. I scrambled for the keycard, and unlocked the door.

The room wasn't anything too special, two beds with old yet polished furniture and a few cheap paintings. I wanted to eat something, so I popped open the cabinet, even going downstairs to buy a few instant meals, and then proceed to wash it down with water. I stared blankly at the cityscape below me. A few plumes of smoke; remnants of the disaster still weeping over the city even in the night, like a ghost there to remind us all of our sins.

For some reason, the soda tasted unusually bitter that night.

 **-(69)-**

In a few hours, probably around 12 at night, I went for the hospital. It wasn't that I didn't care for my sister, more the knowledge that there was really nothing I could do to help her. Emotional support? Well, she was a strong woman, like all my sisters. Even hospitals like this one were crowded. To save Navy, they had to delay a surgery for a broken arm, since it wasn't as serious. I provided some ID and convinced reception I could visit.

 **Izze and Ice**

 **Lv 18**

 **Neopolitan Arc**

I blinked. What? I backed out of the room, just to make sure I was in the right one. Sure enough, I _was_ in the right one… The hell? I had no explanation for how my sister would have changed her name. Maybe something wrong with the paperwork? But that would have to change the name they were given…

No, the gamer couldn't recognize that. There was a kid named Alabaster in our school, but everyone called him Arylide. He introduced himself as Arylide, and it was almost convincing. _Almost_. I checked his profile soon after, and found that his parents changed his name when he was nine. My theory was the… fuck, I had no theory about anything. There was much to question about the capabilities of this ability.

I shakily approached her bed, quickly going back to retrieve a chair. I looted a bottle of HP potion and uncapped it, holding it up to the slightly opened right eye of Navy Arc. Her face was completely covered in thick bandages, except that little hole under where the nose would be for breathing, and the little eye thingy, almost like some kind of pirate. I touched her arm, which had been casted in probably the hardest shit in the land.

She sipped around half of the drink weakly, but quickly recovered and gulped the thing down. I put the empty bottle away.

"Navy" raised a quivering hand, which touched my cheek. "Are you… Are you alright?"

She nodded slowly.

I found myself unable to truly think up of anything worth saying. I couldn't just pop in and make a bad joke "What… what happened to Boysen?"

In that moment, the brown eyes which held mirth and amusement so long ago turned into an image I would never forget. The inquisitive eye, like a god from above which had been given the sole duty of turning its worshippers to blood cocktail, glared down with such… evil hatred. My spine shivered and I looked away. Navy was still comforting my arm, but the look of pure hatred was worthy of a painting centuries in the making.

This was his fault… None of this would have happened if that fucker didn't abandon her! I would be laughing and hugging my sister, at having survived the tragedy, enjoying a delayed yet comforting ride home. He'd brought this on himself!

Maybe that could make her happy. Oh, what I would do for that smile!

I… sort of hugged Navy and left the building, without a word. She had definitely understood that I'd been scared off, but that look of indifference was one thing not even NPCs held.

 **-(69)-**

I stood in front of the clothing store. Well, Pumpkin Pete's merchandise store. The costume of the bunny mascot, eerily similar to the Lepus gear set, glared upon the street, lighted by that orange dust lamp. I had made my way towards the location of Boysen's apartment, around 4 blocks away from where I was standing.

I'd received a strange text, of an unsuspecting location painted with the letters 'BYSN'. _Probably Navy_. WIth a few little skills of mine, I tested hundreds of locations; blind spots to those pesky cameras. Something told me I was being watched, but I didn't mind the slightest as I entered the construction site. It was just a primal fear, one that occurred on the night of your second sin. Pumpkin Pete's merchandise shop was in some kind of repair stage, but the crew had obviously been put on break due to the attack. I crept inside and into the back, where I changed to a… more fitting selection of clothes.

 **Head: Leprechaun-Heavy**

 **Right Arm: Leprechaun-Heavy**

 **Chest: Bone-Medium**

 **Left Leg: Lepus Leap**

 **Right Leg: Lepus Leap**

I slipped on a cloak I scavenged and cleaned from a trash bin, and just as I was about to start-

"Freeze! VPD!"

My blood froze (lol) slightly and I slowly raised my hands, with thankfully no weapon. As the two gunmen approached, I breathed heavily. Was this how I would go down?

Fuck no! This was my fucking revenge, and two people working for the shitstain known as the law would not interrupt me. I thought about… whatever. I channeled aura to my entire body, spinning around and pushing the two to the ground far too quick for them to physically react to. I stomped on their hands, taking their weapons for myself. I missed a baton and one of the tasers, but that would be fine.

I braced myself and swallowed back vomit as I crashed through the glass, wrapping myself in the unfortunate mascot costume. I dashed out, but to my surprise, another police car was already parked. I swore and looked for a weapon… there! I picked up the orange construction chainsaw, unsheathing it from its safety. I channeled aura into the tool, barely quick enough to block a few shots. While I wasn't quite fast enough to dodge or deflect them, I usually had a good idea where people were shooting, thanks to dad.

I fluttered the glass shards off my cloak, a pair of golf gloves trying to find the switch. I did, and kept my hands on it for the time being. I channeled what must have been at least 5 stacks of aura to my legs, increasing my lower body DEX to around 70. Saviour of Vale and Hero were truly handy buffs, increasing my speed to that of an average third-year Beacon student.

I travelled up the street, admiring the beautiful orange lighting. I remembered this scene from a movie of sorts, but couldn't really place my finger on it. I pried opened a little hatch, thanking the gods that he lived on the top hatch. I smiled.

It was time.

 **-/|-**

" _Final Message of the day: A break-in around 15 minutes ago at Pumpkin Pete's merchandise shop on Haywell & 87th. Suspect is supposedly connected to the recent Perkins Sanitarium break-out-"_

Boysen Brown turned off his radio, covered in blankets and reading an old magazine he came across. Anxiety was at an all-time high for the 14-year-old, having recently performed a daring escape at the attack. He involuntarily shivered at the radio message, before realizing nothing would be wrong. That was it. Nothing was ever wrong, and it would never be. Human civilization was like a huge pack of moth; so big that it was impossible something bad would happen to any ofthem.

He flipped to yet another page, smiling at the old memories the pictures brought.

A groan. A thud.

His eyes fluttered in terror at the sight before him. It was dressed in strange attire, something resembling the brown furs of a rabbit, overlaid by thick white bone-like armor. Its elegant white mask, however, was perhaps the most terrifying feature. A glowing pair of eyes greeted him, marking the man's true identity as a Faunus. He attempted to speak- attempted to move, but his groan of terror went unheard as the chainsaw roared and bit through his shoulder.

"Please… please don't!" He screamed.

If it was possible for someone to smirk even more, Boysen was sure that the white rabbit would have done so. It was hard to tell, after all. The ears were very pretty, he thought.

But nothing would stop it.

Nothing could stop that roar of the blade as it sunk deeper. He attempted to struggle; to find a reason to escape the shaking blade, but found none. Immediately, his nervous system kicked in, bringing jolts of flashing pain. In that split second, Boysen cursed the gods of creation for making them this way. Created just to feel pain.

The mental sanitarium escapist finally smiled, as Boysen thought when he started sinking and the blade was pulled. _I have less than 2 seconds to live._ Goodbye, mother. Goodbye, father. Goodbye, cousins and family. Goodbye.

The blade came to a complete stop as the rabbit shook it to be rid of the intestines that he had accidentally broken into.

Goodbye indeed…

 **Black/White Rabbit**

 **Lv 14, 68% (1775/2600)**

 **Name: Albus Nigrum Lepus**

 **Title: Bunny Mascot Killer**

 **Job: Murderer**

 **HP: 290/290 (100)**

 **AP: 1300/1300 (100)**

 **SP: 325/325 (100)**

 **STR: 35 (+21)**

 **END: 30 (+21)**

 **DEX: 29 (+21)**

 **INT: 20 (+21)**

 **WIS: 8 (+21)**

 **LUC: 9 (+21)**

 **Age: 12**

 **Height: 1.62M**


	8. Ayy Cliffs

**A/N: Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh motherfuckers we hit 100 followers last chapter! Fuck me in the ass, fuck me in the face! Piiiiiiiiccccccccccckkkkkkkkkllllllleeeee Riiiiiiiiiiccccccccccckkkkkk!**

 **Merendinoemiliano: Cheers, friend!**

 **NeutralPanda123: Welcome to the neutral zone.**

 **Dark Durian: Yes I did… yes I did indeed.**

 **The Last Darkovian: I will present you with all of the items you have requested, good sir Dark. But that will have to wait! Still hesitant on the lemons tho, maybe I'll get someone more mature to write one. God bless my innocent lemon-written-less soul.**

 **Zyxis Ouroboros ReArchypist: Mmmmmmmmmm yum**

 **Plasma Dragon 312: Old habits, Plasma. Old habits…**

 **Once I'm done, should I have a sequel for this? Just asking, but it will be a big twist on the whole idea. Remember to review and shit, tell me some pointers of improvement. Of course, I'll do the story ideas on my profile first. Which one would you like? Tell me which idea suits you best, and give me a few pointers too.**

 **Warning: This chapter briefly discusses controversial shit. I don't think anyone will get offended, but fuck you.**

 **Beta:** pereira-david2010

 **-/|-**

 **[Title]: Bunny Mascot Killer**

 **The newly spring abomination of the Faunus, a killer who takes on the form of a rabbit. Merciless, heartless, soulless, but most importantly, mindless.**

 **((+10% XP From Kills)) ((+3 DEX)) ((+5% Damage))**

 **[Job]: Murderer**

 **You're a killer, Jaune. Jauner. Jauniller. Jaunkiller. Jaunurder. Derp a boosh boosh doop. Deep bump a dewmp. +10% Damage, +3 to STR and DEX, +15% faster XP gains speed for combat skills and stealth.**

 **[Skill]: Chainsaw Mastery-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 1, 25%**

I de-quipped my shit, switching it back to Saviour and hero.

" _We're getting racial relations specialist on the line here. Icarus?"_

" _Hello, Jasmine."_

" _OK. Now, let's welcome our other guest."_

The live audience apparently clapped, as some politician stepped up to the stage.

" _Thank you, thank you."_

" _First, from the majority of our audience. Are the faunus responsible? Icarus?"_

It was evident that the last thing police wanted was to raise racial tensions and basically fuck up the Faunus race forever. Well… crap. Maybe I could take matters into my own hands to track them down? _Nah._

" _Well, a lot of us were there, at the event. I was, too. It's important for everyone to calm down, as Grimm incursions will serve no goo-"_

Before I could even finish thinking about it, the nurse or whatever switched channels. Man, it was like some god had the habit of switching channels just to advance the plot or something.

 _Dun dun dun dunnnn dunnn… da da da, DA DA DA!_

" _Breaking news, with Vale Central Live. Last night at around 2150 Vytalian hours, a man dressed in what looks like improvised armour and… Pumpkin Pete's Mascot onesie broke into an apartment building on 18th & 10th of the commercial district. The man then proceeded to brutally murder resident Boysen Brown with a stolen chainsaw. With most of the force trying to clear up the Sunday attack, police have little to spare on details regarding the killing itself."_

The reporter was tired- most likely work-crazed over the amount of coverage they did for the attack.

" _This just in: we have one claiming to be an eye witness- it's Boysen's father."_

" _Alright, Mr. Brown. Is there anything you can tell us?"_

" _The police are doing everything they can… and I understand that. Oh, I understand that, kiddo. But once they're done… I- i uh… I'll find you. We'll find you, rabbit fucker-"_

The reporter disconnected with the quick realization that Boysen's dad what's-his-name was not very keen on following channel guidelines.

" _At this time, police are not sure of this man's identity and whereabouts. If you have any information regarding the attack, please contact authorities..."_

I honestly felt like laughing at the whole thing, seeing Boysen's dad go nuts after finding his son murdered. I still had a chainsaw dripping with fresh blood… Perhaps an experiment was in order? I grabbed a chair and checked myself in, greeting all the workers who were buzzing around the place like bees. I even chatted a bit with a medical school student, although i later discovered he had much more to do than talk to a twelve year old.

I knocked on the door to check if there were nurses or something, but after a long period of silence, I stepped in. Navy's good eye had some of that eye shit on it… Remus or something? I grabbed a tissue and cleaned it. Heh, _eye shit_.

I eventually dozed off into the realm of sleep.

 **-/|-**

 _I fell in to the waters, soon drowning due to the heavy pressure. As I sunk further down, the walls collapsed on top of me, and the ocean became forever a Fall of agony…_

 _But there was light._

 _There was life. Little bubbles of them were everywhere, creating my waters of agony. The seed of life; spirit came to us then._

 _I was a child, you see._

 _I explored the depths with childish curiosity and hid from the evils that lurked around me._

 _A little green nest was where I lived._

 _But- there were others._

 _Other children, and oh how I loved them!_

 _They were little fucking liars and pieces of shit that deserved the worst! And yet they were here, while god did not punish them,_

 _He loved them._

 _Everyday, he would come down like all was right, and he would whisper words of encouragement into their monstrous ears._

 _So, I did what was right._

 _I sharpened my teeth and ripped them part; little fuckers deserved every bit of it! I tore their arms off, and suddenly they were my own arms! My joy was much more than the love of god… Much more!_

 _But when I returned in glee to find him, I found nothing._

 _He was gone. I returned to my nest, and everyday I would go out to seek him. He was never there. He never appeared before me like they said. He never whispered into my ear like they told me._

" _Hahaha… But I wouldn't discuss religion with you."_

" _You smoke?"_

 _ **Act 1: Tutorial Scene Complete**_

 _ **=•==+*SAVED*+==•=**_

 _ **Act 2: Small Kills**_

When I came about, it was around two in the afternoon. The orange sun blurred through the thin frames of window. I felt a presence shuffling behind me.

 **Huh.**

 **Lv ?**

 **Noah Arc**

Dad fumbled his nose. "Wondered when you'd wake." I jumped in my seat and hid my surprise.

"How'd you get here?"

"Friends." I hummed and stayed silent. Dad finally found the will to move, and peppered a load of fancy "get-well" cards onto the bed.

"Where's this from?"

"Your sisters, her friends, and their parents. Even some from the council. Your mom too, but…"

"How are they?"

"Could be better. Worried sick, but mostly fine. Your mother was quite angry at your impatience."

I laughed. "How is she?"

"Couldn't come along… It's good she didn't." Dad bemused.

"Yeah. She's…"

"Too stupid? A fool?" Dad finished.

"Always wondered why you… ya know."

Dad sighed. "It was a split second decision, really. I didn't think too far beyond the fact that she looked pretty. She's far too much of a fool for this…"

The room was silent for minutes at a time, reaching the point where I had to awkwardly pluck at my hair to have something to _do_ , instead of nothing. Dad walked around the room, observing afternoon horizon while deep in thought of the world. "Tell me what happened. Without the shit the police told me, _please_."

I breathed in a huff of stale air and narrated the whole story, including my first initiation to the world of killing terrorists. If dad had any reaction, he didn't show it. "So, your semblance… It's a pocket dimension, right?"

"Sure, that's good." I said, chewing on festival food.

"You have the gun, yes?" I nodded.

"Show me your aura."

I concentrated and closed my eyes, drawing out the grey abomination that was my soul. "It's said that the colour of aura bestows certain traits to its owner."

 **[Perk]: Grey Heart**

Was this what he was talking about? Well, a few people playing video games had a weaker version, supposedly due to their lack of aura.

"Grey usually represents the lack of… *ahem* moral decency and humane judgements. At least in the common societal view of the two terms, you see."

"So… I'm supposed to be a selfish asshole?"

Dad had a stern look on his face. "Do whatever you feel like, of course. However, being selfish can serve you well."

"How so? Aren't they like, supposed to protect people?"

"Yes and no. The whole system is broken, kid. They say it's supposed to protect all these people, you might even hear that hunters are just the dogs of the council, but… we are truly nothing more than mercenaries. If you want to be a successful huntsman, your own personal wellness must be your first priority." Dad explained, slightly avoiding my question.

"What about saving villages and that kind of stuff?"

"The best common missions you take on will be either security, maybe even bounties."

"That still doesn't answer my question."

"By the time a frontier village or town pulls the alarm, it's already too late. Trust me, I've been to enough of them to know." He didn't say anything more than that.

Well, at least Ansel was pretty safe.

"What about the Valean towns?" Dad cringed, but I noticed it long enough to know something was wrong.

"If a Valean town pulls the alarm, then evacuation would be pointless. As seen before in Mt. Glenn, a horde of that size would be impossible to defeat. However-"

I moved to speak, but paused when I realized dad had something else to say.

"However, do not confuse 'saving' a village or town with standard extermination, protection, or survey missions. You'll even attend them as per usual for a hunter education." I assumed he meant the Academies, not the… uh, combat schools. I didn't think sending kids younger than 17 would be necessarily helpful.

I stopped by some other guy's book shop, picking through ones about the war almost 70 years ago, finding a near-perfect imagination of Julius Arc. Funny enough, both my mom and dad's grandpa's were named Julius. However, none of the books held any information or reference to the Arc clans.

 **Shopkeep**

 **Lv 5**

 **Olde Mann**

I eventually lost interest, instead opting to look through all of the other books to find something useful. No luck, apparently, as the system apparently lacked a skill-book feature. I mean, that shit was cheating.

I exited, having wasted an hour of my time. I entered a public restroom stall and organized all of my ammo again, disposing of the empty shells down a convenient unmonitored sewer entrance. Lien, lien…

Lien took up inventory space, so I had to actually put all my larger bills into separate inventory "cubes". I decided there and then to permanently frame my semblance as a pocket dimension, for reasons of convenience. However, assuming that I would eventually net myself an overpowered skill, this had downsides…

My phone finally rang again, this time from Violet.

" _Jaune! Ma boi, where you at?"_

"Uh… what?"

" _Where you at?"_

"A bookstore."

" _Hitting the books, eh? Fucking nerd."_

My heart rate sped like a bullet train. "The hell?"

" _I'm joking! I'm joking… But seriously, gimme an update or something!"_

"Navy's right eye is disabled for the moment, and in a full-body cast… Did dad call you?"

" _Yeah, yeah. Mom's on a blitz. Cyan, Jane, Az, me, blah, blah, blah… Oh, Bi's coming to visit you guys."_

"Really? Isn't she like, really busy?"

" _So I've heard. Apparently they heavily discourage taking 'off' days."_

"So…"

" _When can we talk to Navy? I mean-_

 _Oh."_

The deafening silence overtook the static of phone, and a cold blast of air washed over our faces. The dread and melancholy of the moment was only broken by the sound of Violet disconnecting. I pocketed the device again and departed, heading for the hospital.

Now, I didn't know Bianca's phone… or scroll… or whatever she used, but I supposed she would call dad or something. I stepped into the building and kicked my way in, finding a tall woman with… Kay, there was no need to describe my sister.

 **Sike.**

 **Lv 51**

 **Bianca Arc**

Leading one of the best, if not _the_ best second year team at motherfucking Beacon Academy, my sister's black hair was long again (probably after getting used to fighting with it). Dad lazily held his scroll's camera over the room, giving mom a full view of the thing.

" _You let him out alone again?"_ A strictly disappointed voice butchered the mike.

"Yeah."

" _Well- huh. Uh… *sob*"_ Mom started crying, probably for the umpteenth time, as evident by how Bianca pursed her lips in distaste. She nodded at me, but decided to remain quiet through the damn thing.

I remained patient until Cyan could no longer take it and disconnected the call, finally allowing us to our own freedoms.

"Hey, Jaune."

"Hi."

My sister approached and gave me a hug, dad rolling his eyes at the display of affection. I did my best to wriggle out of her grasp, but it seemed my stats were greatly outclassed… Well, I didn't want to [Observe] any of my sisters, so that was what I assumed.

"So, you went terrorist hunting?" Bianca took seat in a folded chair, dad doing the same seconds later. Navy was asleep, as usual.

"I guess… can we not talk about this?" As much as that might have sounded like a grand adventure, I felt… irritated when I thought of them. Their masks of pain when I crushed their bodies, the astonishing realization that I had killed.

"Don't let this discourage you from being a huntsman, alright? We fight Grimm, not people." She rubbed my shoulder reassuringly.

"But what about-"

"Shh… it's all over now."

Somehow , I didn't believe her.

 **-/|-**

Forever Fall, North to the city of Vale. Infamous for its deadly beauty, but note the "deadly". If one was to give it a true visit, perhaps only the most imaginative of artist and huntsmen could appreciate it.

Features include:

-Seven Hundred (700) known Nevermore nests scattered around the forest park.

-Schnee Railway, recently finished construction and built with the blood and tears of many a dead Faunus worker.

-Red as fuck trees, hence its name.

-Bears!

-And...

"175 lien for one ticket?" I complained to the manager.

"Yeah, kid. That, or not at all."

I sighed and raised my eyebrows at the unimpressive place; a dark grey building painted with the symbol of Forever Fall.

' _Forever Fall Zoo',_ It read.

"Plus, why ain't your grandpa paying?" He jerked his head at the old man.

I didn't answer, but instead handed the cashier/guy 350 lien. The old man tried to drive, but the guy stopped us. "Tax."

 _Shit._

I handed the thief yet another stack of lien cards.

We dove into the drive-in zoo. The occasional Grimm crow and Rapier Wasp passing by us. The forever red of leaves… it was… indescribably beautiful. A cascade of red constantly fell. FF national park was more of a sight-seeing park than the ones with animals walking beside your car. However, this didn't mean the forest was devoid of life, as some animators seemed to portray it. Bears, deer, rabbits (!), large cats (huh), and an assload of birds were all part of the ecosystem.

"What next?" The old man questioned, a mouthful of glowing yellow teeth creaking.

"Not yet." I reached a hand out of the open window, checking for a spot the cameras were not observing…

"Here." The old man stopped his car, smiled, and held his hand out.

I slapped a handful of lien down. "Your pay…"

"Pleasure doing business with ya, kid." I smirked and waved him off.

Truth was, FF national park only covered a twentieth of the actual forest. The rest was a good place to camp, but only if you were armed with enough ammo to destroy a city block. I flicked Autumn's reloading "switch", revealing two hollow metal tubes.

I stuffed two regular bucks into the barrel, then putting on gloves and armour. Here, I could dispose of shells without a care in the damn world, since I was technically not a citizen of the city (with no records other than a mention on dad's). Ansel was a frontier town, after all. Not a Vale town, but a frontier town close to the borders of Vale.

 **Job: Hero → CQB Artist**

I dropped to the ground and did a simple warm up I'd drilled into my mind long ago.

I put pairs of ammo into my empty slots and dumped the stuff I didn't need... like Lien, electronics, and random shit into cardboard boxes. I didn't have a holster for LR8, so that was on standby in the inventory… Now, more damage to Grimm, or +20 to all stats and +50% regen?

Well… ah, screw it, time to go hardcore! I equipped **Bunny Mascot Killer** for the bonus in XP and checked all my weapons again. Knife… Shotgun… 14MM… Chainsaw. Time to go a killin'!

Since Forever Fall was such a well-protected establishment, I had to get past the fences in order to gain access to the legit Grimm shit, which also meant breaking past the supposed hunters placed on guard.

Damn, why was everything so hard?

I noticed swarms of Wasps hungrily flying around, probably to gather sap for their colonies. Mixes of drones, juniors, and adults moved in synchrony, latching onto the leaking trees to gather sap. I switched to birdshot and backed the fuck up, so I could get the most out of the spread.

 **Sneak Critical! +182 XP! +37 Lien**

I quickly shut down all the notifications, since… well, there were like, 50 of them. I fired again and most of the swarm died off. Rapiers were known for their bad hearing and mental capacity, much like their insect counterparts.

It was then I realized that I'd been firing essentially 20 meters from the trail, so I bolted and ignored most of the swarms. A few Grimm crows were nearby, but the things were mostly docile, only attacking when they formed packs.

' _DANGER_

 _LARGE GRIMM_

 _DO NOT PASS'_

I rolled my eyes and switched titles, leaping over the fence. My eyes widened when I felt air beneath me-

"Fuck… that hurt." I groaned and regretted my lack of ability to land, but who the fuck trained people to land?

I jumped up and sprinted away from the fence as fast as I could, but refrained from using aura.

Apparently this was a bad idea, as I was soon hit with about a bajilion stamina and exhaustion debuffs. I rested on the occasional "leaf bed" to wait for my stamina to regenerate. At least my DEX increased by one point. Note to self: run more.

"Dodododododooooooo…"

"Oohhhh… yeah, bitch."

"Mmmmmmmmmmm, poosh de dewmp le doop!"

"Unce unce unce unce unce doom…"

"The fitness Gram Pacer test is a multi-stage aerobic capacity test-" I recited from this thing we did at school.

Combat… Combat? Sure, I knew a few basics, but they it wasn't for Grimm. It was to ultimately kill or maim a relatively inexperienced, but armed human or faunus. Sticking to my guns would be essential to the hunt. The chainsaw and and knife were at best unreliable backup solutions.

As I trekked through the empty forest calmly, I had the niggling feeling that something… was out of place. Gusts of cold but quick May wind shook the leaves occasionally, causing a few to drop every minute. I searched and searched, for a sign of _something_ , but it seemed as if everything was gone.

Wait! That was it! Empty.

I looked around, suddenly feeling a shiver travel up my spine. My brain was on 'fuck this shit' mode, urging me to escape. I, however had other ideas. I looked back to the high hills and small mountains of Forever Fall, spotting several eerie black spots moving somewhere. Lines of text eventually appeared over their heads, and I swore at my poor luck.

 **[Encounter]: Beowolf Stalker-(Pack)**

 **Danger Rating… Lv 27 Recommended (Hard)**

Fuck! I'd been stalked… And the difficulty rating was **Hard** , but bitch, when was life ever easy? _Come on, whaddaya recall?_

Beowolf… Beowolf stalkers are an uncommon "mutation" of the standard beowolf variants. Chance of, how or why this mutation occurs is unknown. Causes a decrease in size (a bit taller than me) and armour for increased mobility and stealth. However, the most noteworthy changes are its behaviours. Stalkers easily form packs and work together to "stalk" a target(s) until a response from the target or other unknown reasons.

 **Quest: Survive!**

 **You've encountered a deadly horde of Stalkers. Get to work, hon!**

I drew LR8 from my inventory. After all, It had a much higher ammo capacity, and… well, that was really it other than the 14MM. I'd never seen one fired, even on YouTube since magnums were more popular for anti-Grimm shit. Well, at least I didn't carry a 9mm or something.

Alas, It was time to hunt.

 **-/|-**

Jaune gritted his teeth and kicked back some dust, pointing his trusty (but not really) LR8 towards the sky. The beowolves finally readied their pack and five charged at the same time, the others following behind them, preparing to flank. Bits and pieces of red grass flew behind them, creating the monstrous visage of a Grimm lawn mower.

Jaune leaped back and dipped two points to each of his DEX stats, but one more for each DEX speed trait to hopefully outrun the fuckers. He wasted no time and pointed the Grimm chambered pistol with little skill, pinning two shots into the first of the line. Unfortunately, Grimm were tough and his skill was nonexistent, the bullets only stopping the beast and sending it to the ground. Jaune rapid-fired the bone rounds into the scattered pack, swearing loudly as he was forced to run the hell away.

He turned around and tried again, but the weapon clicked empty. Jaune dashed forward, narrowly avoiding a snap of jaws where he once was. This was no test of skill, but one of stats and wit. Mostly stats. Via a little flutter of dimensional energy, Autumn appeared into his left hand. Unfortunately, the other pack members had already pounced. Jaune swore and rolled out of danger, but straight into more. _Need… Reload._

Jaune activated his aura and a bright flash of gunpowder eclipsed the wolves, blinding and damaging them. Jaune popped a mag from his inventory, caught, and reloaded it in one swift motion, prompting a brief notice of his advance in **Trick Reload**. LR8's slide automatically slithered across black flesh, chambering the 14 millimetre round with surprising ease. Jaune took a deep breath and fired with decent accuracy, finally managing to penetrate the ass known as beowolf. _This fight is finally going my way! Now, without anime exposition, it's..._

The Wolves and Jaune paused for a minute, in deep thought.

 _Yeah, this fight is…_

 _Missing… Something._

Music! That was it, they thought, as the fight could now be emotionally expressed with excitement. Yes, but that would require something beautiful. Something extravagant. Masterpieces of modern art; pure expressions of euphoria and energy in the form of sound was required for a fight of this grand scale.

 **[AMV]: All Star**

Jaune smiled and fired his last round, flipping the magazine out of his inventory at speeds relative to a helicopter blade to somehow catch it again. As expected, the cool trick did not work as it should have, resulting in the waste of a few precious seconds. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and loaded both of the guns, firing into the general vicinity of the pack with small consideration for accuracy. Once again, as expected, they rarely found a mark.

 **-Press F2 to Switch POV-**

I swallowed my own spit and swiped at my inventory screen, causing two shells to fall out and slide into Autumn. Ah hah, fucking surprise, I predicted the direction it would exit in! Using roughly 250AP, I fired again and blinded the wolves, giving me yet another cache in XP to confirm the kills.

I put away LR8 and slapped my inventory again, two shells flinging out to perfectly place themselves in Autumn. I focused and channeled a large wad of soul juice to the shotgun. Man, this ability was cheap!

 **Critical! Critical! -250AP! -250AP! -250AP!**

Since the perk actually blinded things, I was pretty safe from the ones trying to flank and surround me. Beowolves were still beowolves, dumb as fuck and lacking INT.

My muscles suddenly tensed in pain, and I let out a wail of surprise as my lungs felt like it were collapsing on itself. _What?_

 **[Status]: Aura Exhaustion-(Medium)**

 **Rapid depletion of soul reserves causes great strains on the body. If exhausted fast enough, may fall unconscious.**

 **Physical STATS decreased by 60%!**

 **SP/Regen Decreased by 40%!**

 **AP/Regen Decreased by 76%!**

Fuck! I groaned and collapsed to the ground, clutching my twisting organs. Eventually gaining some resistance, I began crawling in a random direction like a lost man without his glasses, my senses having a hard time to focus due to the pain… The Body was not that effective at suppressing it.

Jaune held himself up through the exhaustion with Autumn as his cane. He let out a shallow gasp when a Stalker tackled him, searching for weak spots and preparing to end the kid. There was a _bang_ , and a billow of smoke as the wolf dissolved into black mist, shit probably happens when you get shot with a 14MM point blank.

Jaune's aura recovery began, and he began firing again. _Wait…_

 _Where's my XP?_

 **Babe, XP is awarded when the event is finished!**

His lips curled into an 'o', and cracked the last bone shot he had for LR8. A Stalker blurred into nothing, but the threat was far from over. 17 Beowolves of assorted statuses were still alive, and there was a long way to go… The beowolf formed into loot, however, and Jaune gladly placed the armour onto himself.

Nearly completely covered with bone armour, Jaune dug up… _Wait_

Dust rounds?

 _Dust rounds?_

Holy fucking shit… If only he knew!

Jaune excitedly loaded a fresh & hot Burn Dust mag, and the pistol hissed slightly at the foreign material. Jaune took aim and his aura decreased by a few points.

The dust round burnt through the Stalker, either ending it or basically neutralizing it for… a while. Jaune whistled and carefully squeezed the trigger on more wolves, finding success with each shot to at least seriously maim a beowolf. The rounds sailed silently when they moved towards vital organs, piercing through heads with force unnatural for a handgun bullet.

There was a damn good reason the armies adopted dust ammunition; expensive, but got the job done too well.

While his movement was seriously impeded, it wouldn't stop him from shooting. Jaune drew Autumn and loaded it with fired dust, channeling rough aura to the propellant and buckshot to unleash two devastating shots to the pack. _12 left…_

Jaune bit down on the last of his food and gulped down a particularly useful energy drink, feeling his deprived SP recover. Through the terrifying gaze of the rabbit mask, Jaune reloaded and fired… While dual wielding, he was still careful to aim before firing, stopping to shoot at the Beowolves while anything that got too close would be met with Autumn. Jaune spun the gun in his hand as he ran empty, whilst a clip fell out of inventory to land in the pistol.

 _Bitch please!_ With a practiced movement, Jaune reloaded Autumn with one hand by twisting his hand around the gun and flicking the switch with his ring finger, while the middle and index fingers grabbed ammo for the gun.

The last vestiges of the Beowolf pack made point on Jaune's lack of ammo, and spread out across the forest. _7 left._

I spun the empty LR8 into my inventory, and took cover behind a tree, breathing heavily. I spat out a few liquids I didn't know I had in my body, and nearly impaled my ass on a rock. Fun stuff, really.

Well, not really, but this was _fun_. The rush of fighting and exhilaration of the battle itself was a much better thing to look forward to than boring stat assignment self-monologue and shitty quests. Every gunshot was music, and the suffering of all those that fell were not worthy of my attention.

I blurred from the tree to find a target, and my line of fire found a Beowolf stalking not too much from Autumn's vision.

I fired two rounds in quick succession, before realizing I had loaded the much less effective birdshot into the shotgun. I quickly moved before anymore mistakes-

WHOOSH

Like a leaf in the Autumn, I was blown back a good couple meters by a pressured wave of wind. I accidentally inhaled an ungodly amount of gasses in the process, but managed to pull through before something shitty happened. The trees waved around like mad fans at a fucking disco party, dousing me in a shower of leaves. The Beowolf tried to move, but the wind paralyzed it into holding still. Immediately after, hundreds of feathers, from a meter to six in length impaled the forest, mowing down trees like grass, slicing leaves into two as they fell, but also went straight through the Beowolves, pinning them in a fashion not unlike Mortal Kombat.

A blur of black and white rose from their recent dive, sending our Gunman flipping back an even further distance. The leaves of Forever Fall rose with them before gravity claimed them, shrouding the avian monstrosities in a glorious shower of blood red.

 **[Encounter]: Murder of Nevermore**

 **Danger Rating… Level 56 recommended (Impossible)**

Well, I was fucked. Otherwise, have a nice day. Moon rising… Solar eclipse… All that shit.

I sighed and prepared my guns once again. The Nevermore, backed by their Alpha, unfortunately learned the art of strategy. Instead of a direct assault, the birds circled me, shooting- oh shit! I switched jobs and dashed out of the way, the smaller kids apparently deciding to engage me first. A rainfall of small feathers fucked up the landscape, and I felt a wet sting at the end of my right leg.

The thing had nearly gotten impaled, alright. A portion of my heel was sliced _right_ off (hah! Get it? Because my right leg the one damaged? Okay, I'll shut up now.), but my nervous system thankfully did not register it much. Such a clean and quick cut would have made the envy of most surgeons, but Nevermore hardly qualified. Fuck…

I limped my bleeding leg to find cover, finding the phantom shadows of Nevermore to be… my asscheeks sting. Fuck you, birds! I groaned at my misfortune, and the brief thought of ending myself there and then crossed my mind. _No._ I reasoned. _I'm not a coward… I will survive!_

I began looking for backup plans… escape routes? Not possible. Wait it out? Nevermore were great at bombing.

A little growl found its way to Jaune's ear, and his pupils diluted for a brief second. A beowolf? No, he thought, this was one of the stalkers, and potentially the last. His mind travelled to elsewhere…

 _-Almost two minutes ago, and, like, twelve meters away from here.-_

 _Jaune held himself up through the exhaustion with Autumn as his cane. He let out a shallow gasp when a Stalker tackled him, searching for weak spots and preparing to end the kid. There was a bang, and a billow of smoke as the wolf dissolved into black mist, shit probably happens when you get shot with a 14MM point blank._

 _Jaune's aura recovery began, and he began firing again. Wait…_

 _Where's my XP?_

 _ **Babe, XP is awarded when the event is finished!**_

 _His lips curled into an 'o', and cracked the last bone shot he had for LR8. A Stalk-_

 _-Now-_

Jaune's eye rested as he was once again, one with the truth. He limped after the whimpering beast, eyes blazed with determination (and fear). He pointed _his_ shotgun at the Stalker and fired with one hand on Autumn, narrowly missing. Only a few pellets of the birdshot even grazed the creature.

Despite his lack of luck regarding the whole situation, Jaune hopped after the hiding Beowolf, which _probably_ left to rejuvenate itself after its whole pack had been slain. He didn't know any better; Jaune was no Grimm rights activist.

He was not a fan.

Not a fan indeed...

 **A/N: And BOOM! Cliffhanger. Sorry for switching POVS during the fight, but did you like it? Was it truly necessary, and should I have just gone with third person the entire time? Please tell me.**

 **Note: Suicide is not cowardness. Jaune is just experiencing war shit from his grandparents or whatever.**

 **The Stalkers are similar to the ones in the Red trailer. Instead of taking it as a design change (*ahem* failure) like RT, I think having multiple variants brings in a lot more to the world in general.**

 **I'd also like for everyone to be more clear on how the stats work, since i revised it due to inconsistencies. If you see something weird, it's just balancing stuff. This wasn't meant to take much of the plot, since Jaune figuring out how his stats work is really boring.**

 **HP: 36 (+3, or 15HP per level)**

 **SP: 65 (+3, or 15SP per level)**

 **AP: 1 (10 per point, 50 per level)**

 **STR score: 35**

 **Limb/Hand: 33 (Strength, but not toughness of muscles in the limbs and hands/feet)**

 **Body Strength: 33 (Strength, but not toughness of muscles in the rest of the body)**

 **Flexibility: 38 (Elasticity of overall body mass)**

 **END score: 30**

 **Systems Endurance: 30 (Improves the ability of the internal body systems to withstand and prevent status effects such as disease, exhaustion, and aging)**

 **Bone Integrity: 30**

 **Skin/Muscle Endurance: 30**

 **DEX score: 36**

 **Body Speed: 32 (Speed of the body on will)**

 **Agility: 38 (Fine quick control of the body)**

 **Reaction Time: 38**

 **INT score: 20**

 **Logical Deduction: 20 (The ability to solve problems and make connections, affects learning rate as well)**

 **Learning/Memory: 20 (The rate and efficiency of which the brain and body memorises and gathers information)**

 **Application: 23 (The ability to know when to use a complex task to solve another)**

 **WIS score: 8**

 **Character Judgement: 6 (Gain insight to another biological organism using biased means)**

 **Spiritual Enlightenment: 7 (The amount of special knowledge one's subconscious mind has wired into)**

 **Experience Judgement: 10 (The application of human inner knowledge to solve problems)**

 **LUC score: 9**

 **Pheromone Charisma: 5**

 **Autocorrect: 5**

 **Critical Damage: 22**

 **Points: 0**

 **Announcing the beta program- for all those that participate. You will all be beta readers, because I… just like having lots of sources of feedback. Now,**

 **REVIEW!**


	9. Very Lewt Nine Penises

" **你他妈的吃不吃狗屎"** -Manners Maketh the Man

Jaune checked his weapons and took a deep breath, and then with a mad dash, evaded a bombardment of feathers from the Murder above. His damaged foot was still bleeding, but the body was obviously making great efforts to repair it. For a brief moment, his sneak meter went from "visible" to "safe", and Jaune returned fire, the bonus damage from being undetected hitting a few birds. He wasn't completely sure, but judging from some sounds, he had landed a few pellets.

Jaune ran after the Beowolf, shotgun in hand. Wherever he went, the Nevermores followed. And wherever the Nevermores followed, the Beowolf decided to call it quits. Which made Jaune all the more anxious to hunt the thing down… you get it.

He narrowly sidestepped another 3-meter tall feather, but the wind from the projectile sent him crashing face-first towards a tree.

CRACK

Jaune rose with a dazed expression, face full of splinters. Why was he doing this again?

 _ **XP is only awarded when the event is over!**_

Oh, right. That. Jaune plucked some wood from his face and spat out a mouth full of… things. Insects and dirt and all that. He put on his mask again. The Beowolf encounter had yet to be completed, he thought. Jaune squeezed the two triggers of the double barrel in the general vicinity of the wolf, and most likely mutilated a limb or two.

"Come back, ya piece of shit!" He screamed at the equally limping Beowolf.

His calls went unanswered, however. The only response was an ear-shattering screech from the Nevermores, which literally shattered his eardrums. Jaune ignored his injured ears and unloaded upon the wolf.

He looked down at his right foot, to find that it'd been repaired already, but his HP and AP were quite low. Jaune gave chase yet again, dodging attacks and the occasional swoop from the avian Grimm.

 _Swish. Jump. Run. Fire. Swish. Jump. Run. Fire._

The motions were slowly getting drilled into his mind as they repeated, but so had the Grimm. Jaune slowly neared the clearing, and the pack went into deep thought.

After several silent seconds, the Lenore gave an annoyed shriek, and screamed a series of high-pitch noises to its Murder members. The Nevermores responded by tightening their bodies, increasing their velocity by a little. Most of the avaian Grimm then fired their feathers, but this time, those that dove swooped in right after they were launched.

Jaune found himself unable to focus on both tasks at once, and panicked, trying to fire at the divers and dodge the feathers at the same time.

He was immediately pierced from head to toe with razor-sharp feathers (thankfully the smaller ones). Still, one found its way to his left lung, and several others pinned his limbs. Jaune widened his eyes as the Nevermore swooped in, swallowing him whole.

There was a wisp of smoke.

 **Game over:**

 **[Tip]: Git Gud**

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

...

Sike! He had successfully killed the Beowolf _right_ before getting swallowed, giving him the full cache of XP to advance to level 17 .Jaune grinned victoriously and stomped on the Nevermore's stomach. This would be a sick exit!

The Nevermore frowned. What was that thumping thing in his stomach?

Jaune became silent and kicked again.

The Nevermore twitched mid-flight. Fuck, he was going to be sick!

Jaune cursed and spat at the creature's stomach, which… well, Grimm didn't _eat_ , and relied on bacterium to get rid of anything they swallowed, so… He was in a shit-hole. As the Nevermore became ever more unresponsive, Jaune's patience thinned like graphite.

One punch. Two punch.

"Fuck you, bird bitch! I fucked your girlfriend and your mother and-"

Jaune sucker-punched the stomach…

And then kicked it…

And punched it again…

Eventually, he flailed around madly, trying to pump the thing full of dust rounds. And… failed. The Nevermore's endurance was no joke, after all. Was this how he would go down? Our boi thought. Dying in the stomach of a Nevermore? He briefly turned to stomp a Grimm leech into mist.

 **James Pov**

" _Uk- yu- erd itch! E ukked ur zhirlfrwn n mthr nd-"_

James was a good Nevermore. Since the days (50 years) of his adolescence, he had obeyed his Alpha's wishes. The Murder successfully tracked down many smellers, some of which had even managed to kill one of them. Most of whom they hunted glowed shone like a bright beacon, but sometimes they did not glow. They instead emitted a pleasing aroma, and they were all eager to kill. Still, there wasn't much time to-

James twitched and flailed in his flight, losing a few feathers as well. Aw, the hell?

" _Hey, you alright man?"_

James had a slightly constipated look on his face. " _Yeah, I'm good."_

As if on cue, James' rear exploded in a blinding flash of light, stunning the nearby avians momentarily. The Grimm's ruptured anal cavity revealed Jaune, white hot double barrelled shotgun in hand.

"Sup, fuckers!"

By the time Jaune spoke, James was already dead. Technically, of course. His muscles and nerves had tightened, but the lift created from his flat wings were still enough to keep them descending at a reasonable speed below free-Fall. Jaune took aim at the birds, shooting down several in half a minute.

 **Critical!**

BANG BANG

 **Critical!**

Pull.

BANG BANG

 **Critical!**

 **[Jaune, in the anal plane]**

I was having a shitty day so far… see what I did there? Because I was in… an asshole? Ah, _Fuck me_. I tried my best not to look down, but without my sense of hearing, I found navigation to be a difficult task. There was a reason there were so little in the way of disabled hunters, as fighting without a sense was just not _perceivable_. Haha- I did it again!

I shot down another small Nevermore, and another. Autumn's barrel heated at an unprecedented pace, and i stowed it away, since I wasn't sure if it would blow up in my face. Aiming with LR8 was difficult, and I was only able to get those that were close to my Nevermore's altitude. What? I couldn't predict wind patterns, asshole.

"Descend faster!" I yelled on instinct.

It was approximately half a minute later when I realized that this was _not_ a video game. Damn reflex!

How long will this thing last? I wondered. And why was the flooring… getting softer?

The Nevermore lost tangible shape, becoming mostly a large cloud of black smoke. I clutched on to its solid remains, and aura thankfully protected me from the g-forces of Remnant's skies. As the shape lost more and more of its mass, so did my patience. I mean… why the absolute fuck must this happen to me? It wasn't fair…

Apparently, mother Remnant wanted to say "fuck you" and the Nevermore became a little patch of feathers, with the loot falling to the sea of red below me.

 **Oopsie Daisy, I made it into loot too soon.**

"Thanks, asshole."

I didn't look for a reply, but instead- HOLY SHIT!

Let it be said that I hated free fall.

Shortly after my eighth birthday, Cyan got excited and "accidentally" threw me into a table… I really didn't like her after that. The absolute lack of control and panic was enough to give me nightmares for months.

Let it also be said that I was an idiot. I trusted people in the past a _little_ too much, and I fucking swear to the god of art and Mistral, Monty Oum to never fucking forgive anyone, ever again. I was not going to be swayed by the petty desires of men! Coming to Vale was a mistake!

 **Loot~**

Ah, maybe I could make an exception for that. Okay, Jaune. Think about happy times… Thank you, Jane.

I opened my squeezed eyes.

 **F2**

"HHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYY FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGGG SHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!"

Jaune gurgled, lips stretching. Pools of saliva and various bodily fluids splattered against the Nevermore in pursuit, who were quickly catching up. Jaune's aura lost control of itself, and instinctively flooded to his body. Well, this resulted in an exhaust not unlike a rocket propellant shooting him across the skies.

Jaune lost sense, but this time completely. Through panic and fear, he lost control of his body. Aura blasted at random intervals, sending him beyond freefall. His HP tore away quickly, the pure force of descending at such a rate it destroyed several parts of his body. His AP steadily climbed down, but the Arc heritage's capacity was one thing historians admired. Like a bullet, Jaune landed, creating a smoking crater in his wake.

Sensors placed closer to Vale picked up the signal, but the landing had other… surprises. For one, the nearby wildlife all instantly died, including Grimm. The shockwave tore apart wasps, but the powerful sound was much more impacting. For almost a hundred meters around him, eardrums popped. Owls, Ravens, my ex… Yeah, they died (I wish). For miles beyond, all could hear that distinct 'pop' of an aura crash, and set out to investigate what could have possibly made a hunter resort to such a technique.

Well, whoever was in that crash couldn't have survived.

"Ugh…" Jaune groaned. His back was sore, and he felt cold!

 _Where am I?_ Oh, right. Fighting some beos, but a pack of Nevermore ruined it. Barely managed to kill the last wolf to get all the XP to level up, so he could survive that swallowing thing. Shit, he had to get outta here!

 _Caw!_

Were those things… alive? Ah, of course. Ancient Grimm. He weakly patted some dust away from himself, and searched his pockets. He froze.

 _Where's my phone?_

Jaune wobbled up and observed everything around him, filtering through hundreds of items. He looked under his underwear, within the gaps of his armour, under the broken barrel of his shotgun, and into the forest. _Oh shit_.

"I lost my… fucking phone."

He couldn't believe it. How had the situation have gotten this bad? Well, at least he could buy a scroll. The fight's losses in pure assets alone was devastating to his funds! Unacceptable!

 **[Item]: Autumn's Gift-(Broken)**

Oh, shit. That too. The gun had suffered too many damages, first from being thrown around, then from crashing. Jaune bit down on a bitter tear.

"I'll miss you, old friend…"

Jaune cocked his pistol, but the action slid a perfectly fine round out of the magazine. "Fuck."

He took out the mag and loaded it again, and LR8 hummed in satisfaction.

CAW!

He flipped out of barrage's way and returned fire, damaging the avian. However, the Beta had clearly grown some guts. It swooped down beak-first straight into Jaune, carrying the hero into the sky once more. _Oh, shit_. By his previous displays, one could guess that the Arc did not perform well in the air… Jaune huffed and crossed his arms, his heart impaled into the Nevermore. The crash had such force that it was taking a while to get out of shock.

Almost out of aura, Jaune raised his gun and fired three fiery shots into its left eye. The bird had basically lost an eye, but the shots didn't connect too far. The Nevermore roared in disapproval and tried to open its mouth to rip apart Jaune, but-

A flash of silver. A roar of beasts.

The chainsaw buzzed around as it stuck to the inside of the bird's eye, slowly tearing apart flesh. Jaune poured some aura into the blade, and the effect increased. Despite this, the Nevermore was still a ways off from being finished. It squirmed in pain, and opened its beaks.

 **[Status]: Disemboweled**

 _Gotta upgrade my luck_. He cursed and fell, but not before scoring a last slash that sliced a portion of the face off. Like it or not, the thing was still a brick-and-stone cutting chainsaw, not a combat one. The Nevermore lost function and crashed into the forest, destroying yet another patch of red.

Scientifically, Jaune wouldn't have survived.

 **WARNING: MASS LOSS DETECTED**

 **Analyzing… 42.3971% Lost.**

 **Systems check.**

 **Muscular/Integumentary?**

 **-60% Remaining**

 **Skeletal?**

 **-70% Remaining**

 **Digestive?**

 **-40% Remaining**

 **Repair?**

 **-possible**

 **Estimated time?**

 **-000000000214**

There was a deafening 'boom' as the dying Beta tore apart a few trees before dying. The Alpha Lenore shrieked in anger, but could do nothing.

Before anything else could happen, his lower half had started a lengthy repair. The missing bone was to develop first, and the various tendons and muscles that connected them. It wasn't anything on par with Deadpool's, but it was quite a sight to see. Like Bamboo sticks in the Vacuoan oasis, soft bone marrows developed quickly and efficiently. He felt a slight groan in his joints, but it was not a worry.

Just as he was finally catching a break, the sea of red above him opened, revealing a giant pitch of black poking around for its target. Jaune was found and plucked right out of his resting spot with a girly yelp.

D

"Do people like taking me into the air for no reason now? Should I be expecting this in the future?" He wondered out loud.

A set of beaks bit down harder, causing the boy to wince. "Oh, sorry. Nevermore. I meant to say Nevermore."

The grip relaxed, though it was hardly calm. The wind sailed through his ears, making it hard to hear anything. The most he could do was move his arms, but he managed to don some new points, mostly for balance. He could choose to be a master later, for a man always needed a steady foundation in which to rely upon. Video game philosophy, eh? From what he learned in RPGs, it was always to have steady base STATS to work with, and specialize later. Unless you were that skilled with the game, but having good skill in Remnant was as reliable as becoming a prostitute in Menagerie and hoping to _not_ get… diseases. _I wonder what kind_. He thought. _Violet never told me_.

 _I wonder why I'm alive?_ Seriously, was the bird gonna let him meditate all day long? It was making him anxious!

He shifted downwards.

 _Okay, okay… said that too soon._ He stared down at his growing kneecaps, which was weird, since he could feel his feet too. Like it was supposed to be there, but his brain couldn't register the fact that it was gone. The Nevermore's saliva rose to wash him down, but Jaune took advantage of this, hiding inside the Nevermore's beak and cutting into it with the chainsaw. _How come I didn't use this earlier_? The construction tool dug into white bone and skitted a couple of times before cutting deeper into the beak, earning a pained shriek from the bird. He nearly fell out, but actually did fall out.

His footing slipped on the wet, slimy surface, and Jaune stumbled out with a gasp. Luckily, the saw caught another armored portion. His grip was tempted to slip as the tool pushed up slower than before, almost breaking. In another lucky break, Jaune remembered to slip some aura into it, and the saw returned to normal once again. His entire body shook violently.

What to do… Ah. He quickly de-quipped most of his armour, except the mask since that was more helpful. Jaune pulled himself up, reaching the neck of the bird. Said bird tried to crush him under its neck, but Jaune leapt up just in time. His bare, literally bare calves stung when they touched the Nevermore, but he held on. The nearly naked Jaune (he would later remind himself to buy more clothes and armour) sprawled himself across the bird's back.

 **HP: 70/475**

He still had a few regeneration buffs going on, AKA the lifesaver. He felt flesh shift below his knees, and looked down, but there was no shoe. _It's cold._

Jaune gripped tighter as the Nevermore started shaking violently, threatening to send him plummeting to sure death. That was one of their strategies, after all. To pluck their victims from where they stood and drop them on others. Inefficient, but the smaller ones couldn't throw their feathers as well. On second thought, it was possible to survive. He had around 25% of his aura left, so it was a narrow possibility. Then again, falling was a big no-no for… undisclosed reasons.

Jaune's grip was tested again when the Nevermore turned like a bulldozer, creating a metric fuckton of centrifugal and other various acceleration forces that almost threw him off. Jaune slowly climbed up to the neck of the bird, and with all his strength, dug the aura chainsaw in, right under the white armour plating.

 **Critical!**

The saw slowly made its way deeper down the monster's flesh, but it failed to make much progress. Jaune put more aura in and continued, earning a hearty bellow from the bird. The endless jitters of the tool- no, weapon shook his arms, which he later learned would make his hands twitch for hours by itself. He pulled out when he thought it might not come out if he went further, but as soon as the saw met clean air, he re-interested it and dragged to his right, creating another shriek from the Nevermore.

He stumbled when the flight became unstable, the bird violently shaking and flying lower in an attempt to rid its pain. It did the exact opposite when Jaune almost fell back, and dragged the chainsaw with a burst of momentum. Jaune activated his aura and the cut went deeper, further, and deeper still.

His soul flared with grey energy, pumping his body with spiritual energy. Jaune raised his chainsaw in a final attack, and a grey arc eclipsed the Nevermore Lenore Alpha. With a great groan, Jaune's body slipped from the Nevermore and fell on a cushion of velvet leaves…

And broke the branches. Heavily winded, Jaune laid on his back, gasping for air and thoughts.

He'd… done it? He'd actually beaten the flock?

 **[Aura Channeling] levelled up! [Aura Channeling] levelled up! [Aura Channeling] levelled up! [Aura Channeling] levelled up! [Aura Channeling] levelled up! [Aura Channeling] levelled up!**

 **Bravo! +15000 XP!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **You levelled up!**

 **-|{~~\Welcome to Level 20/~~}|-**

 **You feel a slight shift within your soul.**

Jaune, however, had no celebration in mind. He was panting, trying to grasp every little breath of air he could find. While his body had healed, his mind hadn't. His mind wouldn't.

At least for the while.

Okay, I'm kidding. He was simply mentally exhausted

Well, that was a thing. Despite the cold, he always knew luck would have a treat for him one day. Just one day, though… _Superstitions_. His dad would say. _Luck is a superstition._

 **Autoloot?**

"Oh!" He'd nearly forgotten about the best part: loot. Thank god for the function, because if there was one thing pre-teens found frustrating, it was their navigational skills. You couldn't blame them, really. Their brains weren't as developed.

He tapped on the button excitedly, waiting for the valuables to appear in his inventory. However, there was a _slight_ problem with this, since he only had 39 slots, and fourteen were already occupied…

 **Catch!**

A giant pile of razor-sharp weapons and heavy armour slammed into his head, knocking him back a good meter. A fest of bruises and scratched formed on his face.

"Ow… you suck. Y-you-" he said, rubbing his forehead.

 **You what?~**

"You **butt**."

 **Oh? ;) try again honey-**

"You **terrible person**."

 **Ah- ah- real close! :(**

"You **piece of shit**."

 **Aw… No.**

"Just… just don't throw it at me again."

…

Well, what a meanie. Jaune plopped himself against a tree and gathered his spoils.

 **[Item]: Neverchain Beta-(Mystic)**

 **You killed it with a chainsaw, so I made you a chainsaw. Hey, look! The teeth are little Nevermore feathers!**

 **((The Second Bird of One Stone)) +12 DEX to the user. 20% chance on hit for [STAT Bleed] effect that drains target HP, AP, and SP.**

 **((Grimm Powered)) This weapon consumes calcium blackonate cartridges as fuel.**

 **((Grimmechashift)) This weapon has a basic mechashift function and sheathe for easy carrying.**

 **((Aura Channeling)) This weapon has a 60% channeling efficiency.**

Jaune picked up the sheathed blade, excited yet nervous at the same time. The first unnatural thing was just how _light_ the blade was. Like a feather. It reminded him of the murder, and a sick stream of bile ran up his throat. Jaune swallowed it and smiled nervously, putting the blade away, right beside the original one he stole.

 **[Item]: Dao of Feathers-(Mystic)**

 **An expandable Nevermore feather dao, this blade is a good example of Grimm contraction technologies.**

 **((Combao)) On three consecutive hits, bone blade will replace feather blade, granting higher cutting power, lasting 2 seconds. Each consecutive hit after will grant +2 seconds to the effect.**

 **((Contraction)) This weapon can contract for easy carry.**

 **((Aura Channeling)) This weapon has a 75% channeling efficiency.**

Jaune picked up the small stick, Grimm white in colour with a black part in the middle. He found many small curves on the white "grips", which he discovered pulled apart to form the blade. There was a soft stretch of slimy flesh, and a curved, thin blade made of an elegant Nevermore feather popped up from the tip. _Is it bigger on the inside?_ He asked himself, before reading the description again. _Oh, it's contraction._

He put the weapon away and moved on to the other items.

Jaune winced as he accidentally nicked his fingers on one of the blades. Strange how being disemboweled had a lesser reaction. The next items he chose were assorted knives and daggers, but his lack of knowledge about them meant he couldn't decide which ones were better. The drops were from the stalkers.

What made up the bulk of the pile, however was the armour wrapping everything up. It seemed that the creator of the drops were particularly nice today, as he score:

-Complete set of light armour, completed with a mask

-Complete set of medium armour, completed with a helmet

-set of common Nevermore armour, with minimal feathering for decor

-set of Stalker armour

 **[Item]: Flying Beta-(Legendary)**

" **He never lost a meal. Down he would go to pluck them, and up to drop them. No scraps, no losses. Just a bunch of black feathers to leave behind."**

 **((Dart)) This armour can fire small feathers while equipped. Cooldown: 35 seconds.**

 **((Conceal)) Renders the user invisible and grants +90% damage reduction while in use. Lasts 4 seconds on use. Cooldown: 45 seconds.**

 **((Dash)) The armour propels the user up to a distance of 50 meters at a speed relative to distance. The further away, the faster.**

 **((The Second-Hand)) This armour grants +15 DEX. Increased perception, and +30 to [Dual Firing] and [Dual Wielding] skills. Leaves a Nevermore feather after-effect that disorients targets.**

 **((Aura Channeling)) This armour has a 92% channeling efficiency.**

It was love at first sight. The suit of light Nevermore "pelts" and plates at grasped his attention quickly, and Jaune equipped the armour.

The suit was mainly constructed from Nevermore skin, except the abundance of small feathers made it look like a camoflauged suit. Around twelve plates of smooth white plating covered his joints and important areas, each with not a hint of red on them. As for the upper body, the mask had no markings, making it more human than anything else. A short black cloak made of similar material draped over his back, and he later found two holes to grip them by for gliding and the listed perks.

 _Holy shit… is this real?_

After twirling around in it and watching the feathers dissipate, he decided that there was still much to go over. He picked out a brittle-looking white gun.

 **[Item]: Rapid Stalk-(Uncommon)**

 **A submachine gun built from purely Grimm white-matter, designed for close-quarters combat. Light, compact, and simple… Despite its lack of durability, it is a solid gun.**

 **((Stalk)) +20% Sneak damage.**

 **((Grimm-Chambered)) This weapon is exclusively chambered for the 9.5mm Grimmluger, at an RPM of 620.**

The box-like machine gun bore a simple bone aperture sight, which the rest of the gun followed. He inspected several curved bone magazines, taking out a bullet for closer inspection. _Not bad…_

 **[Item]: Feather Throwing Knife x 360**

 **[Item]: Talon Burst-(Mystic)**

 **Pew pew pew! Ratatatat!**

 **((Talon Burst)) Holographic sight, creates crosshairs when used with Flying Beta. On three-burst mode, +50% damage on the first three hits to a target.**

 **((Talon Edge)) This gun is lined with Nevermore feathers for slashing.**

 **((Grimm-Chambered)) This submachine gun is chambered for the 10mm BS, with an UBERIII recoil control system.**

Talon burst was a gun similar in design to the KRISS vector, but (obviously) made with Grimm matter and without a stock. Right underneath the barrel and until the grip, a wicked-thin, wide blade lined with a few feathers was built into the chassis. Unfortunately, it would probably be harder to reload, but that was not on his mind.

Perhaps the best takeaways were the silenced pistol and two shotguns, but a brief glimpse of moonlight was enough to remind him… how was he going to get back?

 **N•1**

 **You awake?**

"..."

 **Hey, you up?**

"..."

 **Wake up!**

"..."

 **Beta: Meh-Mastter**

 **A/N: Sorry to everyone for the delays. I mainly wanted to binge-write a few chapters these weeks so I don't have to write as much during school days (*ahem I have a speech due tomorrow and have no plans to write it*). Next chap will be a special.**

 **Guest: I forget how ignorant people can be sometimes. What the hell do you know about Jaune when he was 12? He's 17 in canon for gods sake! You're also on the** _ **second**_ **chapter, which is in no way a good way of knowing the character. Why does everyone assume he had an upbringing in a random village with parents who didn't think he was up to the job, also filled with stories of knights and dragons? I don't think Jaune was always the naive and white-knight kid, in fact it's pretty safe to say he probably isn't, since we really don't know much about him. What we do know, however, is that he just wants to be a hero (who protects his friends), and I don't think I've disrupted that balance by making him a bit less accepting of criminals. Good morals? Yeah, he has them, just not as reinforced as what I call "Coeur's portrayal", which is a Jaune who doesn't tolerate killing of any kind, and likes everyone getting along. Anyways, sorry if this came out wrong. I just wanted to point that Jaune is still Jaune, but with a different take compared to most fics.**

 **Guest (Ultimate Pervy Sage): I believe I've already touched on that~ I know it has a very cliche opening, daddy. Maybe I'd revise the chapter later, but- oh No! Not the belt!**

 **The Last Darkovian: Oh, hey! On your OC, it's coming real quick. Real quick. When this Arc is done, he'll play a good role for the next one.**

 **REVIEW!**

我跟天线宝宝吸大麻。-Grow to be old and wise.


	10. The Enemy Within

**N•1 = N**

 **-/|- = J**

"I'm up." My answer was brief and simple, all purposes and intents expressed. It wasn't like the overly complicated Arcadian, and that was exactly how I preferred it. No "ums", no "uhs".

"Dad? Cyan?"

Cyan's room was located next to mine, while calling dad was just… oh, today was a Sunday. No work for him, then. Hearing only silence, I bolted up from the bed and grabbed a pair of shorts. Let's see… no response, which probably either meant that they were downstairs, or worse, gone because I was late. No, no. I wasn't late. It was only a little over 8, actually.

A minute later, I reminded myself why showering was one of the best parts of a morning routine… until it ended. The last drop of steamy, hot water rolled off my back and into the abyss of the shower drain. The glass door rolled away as I pushed it open, then graba towel to do the usual. A thorough check of teeth, some more hair products… and a touch of facial products. It never hurt to look better.

Not a moment later, the dread rose. My heart raced forwards, and I was compelled with overwhelming desire for company.

"Azure?" I cried. Come on _,_ there _has_ to be someone home!

...

"Violet?" I yelled.

No answer.

"Cyan?"

"Jane?"

"Bianca?"

"Mom?"

"Dad?"

"Jaune?"

" **Jaune**?"

Come back to us

 _Can't breathe. No talk._

" _I know it's kind of late to ask, but how was the trip?"_

 _Air. Need air!_

 _Stop. Dry. No._

 _Cut. Pierce. Metal._

 _Bleed. Open. Exposed._

 _Vulnerable, weak._

 _Taste? Bitter._

"Navy?" A blur of black slapped me on the shoulder, followed by another.

Something came into my room and turned to the black blur, and they conversed shortly, with one of them being slightly more excited (what they were trying to do was a mystery). Eventually, the blurs turned away from my line of sight, into the unknown.

Back to the room… Back to false realities and dreams, back to New Year's resolutions and hopes never to be fulfilled. Despite all these… insecurities, I found one thing about the dream to be disturbing.

Why couldn't I talk?

 **-/|-**

Jaune sealed the final boxes of loot items, packing them into boxes for easier carrying. "Come on, you're stronger than this…"

The gunman checked his carry, a smooth pump-action shotgun built from Nevermore flesh. He considered painting the thing later with some kind of metallic spray, so people wouldn't freak out after seeing it. After all, his main income of firearms was going to be from Grimm, for now. It was best to have them at least considered a human weapon.

No armour, though. He was sure everyone within a good 2 kilometre radius had heard the whole fight, not to mention the sensors that had to be hidden throughout the fores. Grimm were destructive like that. He'd be shot on sight. Oh, wait a minute… couldn't the new armour teleport? Didn't it increase his stealth skill?

He face-palmed in his stupidity and equipped the armour, grasping the handle located within the cape for use of the abilities.

"Dash?"

 _Dash._

Jaune zoomed across the landscape, propelled by his semblance. The experience could be described as weird, but he didn't have anything to compare it with. It was like swimming in smooth feathers- did he just contradict himself?

Now, now, his mind reasoned. Time to get out. The ability was still on cooldown, so… Jaune shrugged. For all he knew, it was time to grind the DEX.

 **N•1**

In reality, this would be quite different. A Sunday was what I liked to call the "extra-long-but-not-really-because-my-regular-ones-are-really-long-too-but-this-ones-like-two-hours-longer sleep-in. Thank you, come again. Because get this: I was pro at sleeping.

Which totally isn't- oh shit, here it comes.

One. Two. Three.

No?

Come back to us

 _Can't breathe. No talk._

" _I know it's kind of late to ask, but how was the trip?"_

 _Air. Need air!_

 _Stop. Dry. No._

 _Cut. Pierce. Metal._

 _Bleed. Open. Exposed._

 _Vulnerable, weak._

 _Taste? Bitter._

"Navy?"

Come back to us

 _Can't breathe. No talk._

" _I know it's kind of late to ask, but how was the trip?"_

 _Air. Need air!_

 _Stop. Dry. No._

 _Cut. Pierce. Metal._

 _Bleed. Open. Exposed._

 _Vulnerable, weak._

 _Taste? Bitter._

"NAVY!"

They were pulled into a blue inferno of energy armed with black strips, blasting through the wormhole at light-speed. Navy crashed through the wooden house and landed on a chair. They stared into the phantasm in front of them, dark blue in a dress of kimono, properly aligned with white mask and a beautiful hand fan.

"I must say, you're shorter than those other heroes."

 **[Welcome to the Game]**

 **.**

 **X**

 **.**

 **X**

 **.**

 **Neo** inspected the little trimmings and edges of the white-blue screen, finding the colour of her soul hidden within the spectrum.

Oh? Don't tell me I was… no! This couldn't be?! How? I knew… I knew it all along…

We lived in a game.

Very simple, really. It was one of those open-world simulations, and we were all actually low-cost lines of code that only existed when you opened them up. And was I to suddenly gain a consciousness? Ohmygodwhataboutthepartswhereyoufeeldejavuisthatlikeacheckpointorsomething!

 **[Status/Abilities/Inventory/Options]**

 **Neo** tapped on the first option, but it had done so before she could press it. Some part of her told her that the interface read her thoughts.

 **B** _ **I**_ **ro** _ **c**_ **k** _ **e**_ **n**

 **Neopolitan "Creme" Arc**

 **Lv 24, 21.7% (1628/7500)**

 **HP: 270/490**

 **SP: 140/610**

 **AP: 1850/1850**

 **STR: 42**

 **END: 26**

 **DEX: 40**

 **INT: 22**

 **WIS: 10**

 **LUC: 13**

 **Age: 13**

 **Height: 1.44M (4'8)**

Huh. **Neo** evaluated each of the stats, matching them with her strengths and weaknesses… although one question remained. Why was the STR higher?

 **STR score: 42**

 **Limb: 28**

 **Body Strength: 28**

 **Flexibility: 71**

Well, now that made a lot more sense. **Neo** tried to reach for the "x" button, but the immobility of her arms said otherwise.

 _Skills_

 **Observe-(Permanent) Lv 1, 20%**

 **Writing-(Passive) Lv 74, 90%**

 **Sneaking-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 5, 15%**

 **Stealing-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 2, 50%**

 **Cooking-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 13, 62%**

 **Dancing-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 2, 6%**

 **Persuasion-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 10, 14%**

 **Aura-(P/A)-(Rank I) Level 10, 98%**

 **Hand-to-Hand Combat-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 38, 1%**

 **Aura Channeling-(Active)-(Rank I) Lv 19, 9% Cost: 10AP/^/sec**

 **Crafting-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 22, 7%**

 **Running-(Passive)-(Rank I) Lv 41, 49%**

Okay… so my life was sorted into skills? So cool! Wow, was this like one of Jaune's games or something else entirely?

Speaking of games, Jaune had a few comments on that.

" _Screw off, you mobile pleb."_

Did this mean everything was going to be easy? Was this the reward for surviving? I was alive, right? Not in the afterlife or an alternate universe?

My head hurts...

 **Neo** and Navy scrolled down the screen.

 **Merge-(1%)**

What was merge? No, seriously. Everything else was crystal clear, while **Merge** completely disobeyed the rules.

 **[Traits]**

 **Arc Heritage-(Female): Created from a family forged in dust, +500 to starting AP and +50AP per level.**

 **Arc-(Trainee): Training in secret is an act of disobedience, but training nonetheless. +1 to all STATS and +10% XP skill gains speed.**

 **Arc-(N/A): Without the privilege of being able to carry down the name, your Arc ancestors curse from above- and below.**

I flinched when reading the last two traits, something about the lack of privacy being strange. The last one was something to be frowned at, though. Why would anyone be angry that someone can't "carry down the name"? They did know that the last-name change had always been completely optional, right? Was I incompetent or something?

 **Neo** ignored the mystery of the situation and found nothing else within the confines of the game screen. Perhaps it was time for action, then? She tried to grasp the knife from her inventory and cut the restraints free, but injury was injury. Aura could fix it, but the process wasn't…

 **HP: 278/460**

 **HP: 279/460**

 **HP: 280/460**

Ok, never mind. It was fast enough. The only real problem was…

 **Status:**

 **[Status]: Semi-Muteness**

 **?**

An unfamiliar feeling of dread washed over me, and I couldn't help but gulp, despite how strange the sensation felt now. It was like… it was sliding past a different passage. This was temporary, right? Like all status effects? I nudged the ailment with the outer rim of my head cast.

 **Semi-Muteness-(Permanent)**

 **?-?-?-?**

 **?-?-?-?**

 **?-?-?-?**

 **?**

Permanent? What… how? I was at a loss for thoughts, and I hurriedly tried to speak. This couldn't be real!

My worst fears were confirmed when all I heard was a series of growls and groans, as if there was both a physical and mental block stopping speech. Just… why? Under whose fucking plan, which omnipotent god's rule had decided this was alright? I felt a lone tear trickle into the underwear of the cast, darkening the room's light.

" _Your friends have abandoned you, human."_

Fuck that guy! Madness overcame me, and I struggled to break free. I bit down on my tongue. Hard.

 **Ejecting…**

My bones shifted and turned in place as I felt stiff, cold… things travelling around my bones and joints. Every few seconds, something would "pop" up and eject from my bones. I bit back a cry when one of them grazed along my spine. I noticed one of the sources, swimming up under my skin with the likes of a thin worm.

They all eventually converged on what was probably my right arm, jumping through my skin and breaking apart the cast with the precision of a surgeon. Then I had realized.

The Game.

It wasn't evil. It didn't bring this curse to me. The _Faunus_ did. The Faunus that attacked Vale's national festival in May, or whatever damn month it was now. The Game was only the guide. Yes, it would help. It was the gift of revenge, and I was not going to skip out on it. What if I had waited and returned to Ansel? That's right. Forever treated as the fucking boot scrap, a device of pity, and pity was for the weak.

And I, Navy Arc, was not weak.

 **Neo** shook her arm free of the broken cast and restraints, and channeled a blast of white-blue aura into her arms. She turned to face her left arm and and ripped the medical product apart like paper, filling the room with soul-light. She moved the energy to her arms, but this time she imagined a hammer instead- and slammed her fist into the leg casts.

 **Neo** rid herself of the body cast, and flung it towards the warm window. With a hard sprinkle of glass, the civilians below screamed. She draped her sheets over the frame and leaped down from the three-story building, cracking the pavement slightly. The flowery hospital gown fluttered behind her steps, but the bandages concealed her features.

Civilians around the hospital all either stared or scattered off to their destinations, but their goals were irrelevant to her. Well, first step was to look like a normal person.

Wait… did they cut off my hair? Damn!

 **Neo** stormed off towards the nearest clothing shop, kicking the golden-framed door open, not bothering to read the "closed" sign.

The woman inside the store looked up. "Can I hel… oh."

 **Favourite Clothes Shop**

 **Lv 4**

 **Cocoa Hall**

The shopkeeper, or shopkeetress if you prefer, was a young woman of approximately 25, Pachean in appearance (the dipped hair was a dead giveaway), and bore a flashy, classy, outfit. She stood behind the cashier's desk, more surprised than anything. It was then that **Neo** decided to approach her. She made a visible effort, once she had fully realized her latest client, to hide her sweating palms.

"Ma'am… we're closed." The woman stuttered.

I wanted to say something witty, but held back. Instead, I turned to look at the clothes.

"You want… clothes?"

I gave her a thumbs-up. The woman's pupils contracted- but only slightly so.

"Can you pay for them?" She asked.

I shook my head, swinging the loose end of a bandage around. I just needed those clothes! But before she could speak, a new voice- a girl's, rang from the back of the store.

"Mom, what's going on?"

The girl hadn't made an effort to step into the actual store, but by the way her mother gripped the edges of the desk tighter, I imagined she was very close. The woman- Cocoa, turned and mouthed something along the lines of 'wait please' to me, before stumbling through the doorframe.

"It's just some business, honey. Go back to your room, okay?" The woman returned, breathing heavily.

 **Neo** took it as a gesture of "go ahead".

I turned my back to the woman and headed towards the "children's" section, staring up at the high racks of clothing. I grabbed the first shirt I could find, heart already racing… Stealing wasn't exactly the easiest on the anxiety.

Then the socks…

Now, something decent and durable!

 **Neo** shuffled through the shelves, finding neatly folded and packed. She had to give it to the shopkeeper, the woman was a master room designer.

Too bad she would be destroying it.

She unshelved a green pair of cargo pants, but froze when the sound of a scroll unlocking from its carry mode came from her right. She slowly turned her head towards the shopkeeper.

In front of her, Cocoa sweated, but steeled her resolve, thumb hovering only centimetres away from the "9" on her dial. **Neo** 's world slowed down, and her hands shot out, shattering the scroll and breaking apart the fragile hands of the woman. A blood-curdling scream tore the woman's throat, but **Neo** would have none of that. With a wicked smirk, her palm landed on the neck of Cocoa, instantly taking out a large portion of her throat, and shattering the spine.

She was dead before her body hit the floor, and when _it_ did, the sound of her daughter's footstep as she descended the steps matched the impact. **Neo** 's lips curled into a smile, moving upon the girl to judge her fate. Like her mother, the terrified face of the girl was kept as **Neo** ripped the life from her body, staining the floor with crimson blood.

 **Neo** joyed at the sight of her piece: Mother and daughter, souls gone to the after. She admired the way she had done it, making the most mess out of a simple machine, and to think it was only with her fist… beautiful!

I stumbled and crashed into a shelf, finally clearing the haze from my mind. The damn thing had started out of nowhere, while I was taking the pants. My right eye, the one that wasn't covered by the cast, finally cleared up, and I regained my vision. The only hope was that the woman- Cocoa didn't take it as a sign to hit me with a bat or something.

Phew… deep breaths, deep breaths… calm down, no panic, check for danger.

I jumped into fighting stance towards the direction of the woman, meeting a… wall?

I stood there, confused for a second, before realizing that I probably looked like some batshit insane kid in a hospital gown. Just… hopefully no one noticed?

What was that warm slimy thing on my foot? Please don't be piss…

 **[Item]: Blood-(Human Anatomy)**

 **A red, sticky liquid used to transfer oxygen and nutrients present in most animals. In this case, human (Type A Negative).**

I cried in surprise and jumped away, almost breaking the wall I landed against. Immediately, my eyes landed on the girl sitting against the wall, throat torn out. Had this happened earlier, I might have not recognized the injury at first, but my senses were clearer now, somehow. Immediately I rushed to her side, on my knees, trying to find a heartbeat.

"What happened to you…?" I asked, to both myself and the world.

I looked up and around her, spotting the gut-twisting visage of the woman, throat also torn out. I walked over and knelt down beside her, cupping her face in my heads and giving it a shake.

"Come on, wake up!" I cried. What was going on?

Who could have done this? I searched my pockets for a a scroll, _my_ scroll, but the lack of it in the hospital gown made me clutch around for the woman's instead. I scratched my aura on the edges of the destroyed device, the flexible screen now flopped down to the hard floors.

I looked up, heart leaping. Before the glass pane of the shop, several terrified bystanders held their scrolls high, red light recording all of my movements.

"I… I didn't do it!" I yelled. Two fled, dragging their children with them.

Panic and terror overtook my heart, but there was still a semblance of planning. With a yelp, I flung a rack of clothes towards the windowed entrance of the shop, creating a cloud of dust and causing the rest of the spectators to move away. With what little time I had, I grabbed the most concealing things I could find and dashed out of the back door, through the apartment entrance, startling an old lady.

The Game equipped the items as I entered into an alley, trying to figure my next step. The air had gotten suddenly several degeees colder, with a wet and rainy feel to it. Grey walls and darker streets meant I was somewhere in the… less fortunate areas of Vale.

"VPD! Freeze!" My eyes widened and I continued my run, ignoring the dread of red-blue lights flashing against water.

BANG!

Two shots rang off and zipped past me, missing by only a few centimetres. I flinched and channeled aura, allowing me to turn to a different street instantly. There was a slam as the officers apparently… returned to the car?

Shit.

I picked up pace and ran across the city, making random turns every time I could. Onlookers either backed off or looked at me strangely, animal ears and skin twitching slightly in surprise. I was in Faunus town, wasn't I (or whatever they called it)?

Suddenly, there came this… urge. This uncontrolled desire to go up to them and… tear their throats out. I ushered the irrational thought, wasn't exactly a bright idea when you were running from the police.

It was gone for a blank two seconds, but it _came_ back. It was like my mind had expected it. It felt so _evil_ , it felt so _chaotic_. I became slightly worried, but didn't stop running and pressed down those strange demands. What was going on?

It answered.

It was like a foreign takeover, the right side of my sight became assaulted with searing red-hot pain, blocking it. Blood rushed like tears, and the "feeling" bit at me, my muscles shaking in response. It travelled down the right of my throat, to the shoulders, formerly _my_ shoulders, and spread across my right arm, jerking itself towards the unprotected, tender flesh of a boy's throat.

I raised my left and grasped the right, stopping it from moving. It twitched in my arm like a wild animal, and the boy sped up his walking pace, out of the arm's sight.

 _ **LEt mE TaKe cOntRoL**_

The words flashed across my vision on the background of a black surface infested with red veins, and I smelled the metallic trickle of blood running down my lips.

 _ **ReSIsTaNcE iS fUTiLE**_

A phantom pain seized my stomach and I rolled to the ground, the fight becoming more and more akin to tackling a Goliath.

 _ **sToP TRyInG**_

I jumped up and wrestled the "demon" into an alley covered in graffiti. The words on the walls twisted into its messages, all with the apparent intention of forcing the takeover. The force sent me flying into a brick wall, though I regained my footing, taking a little damage from the impact.

Adrenaline continued to rise, prompting me to gain back control. But when I got stronger, it did. When I tried harder, it did too. I was… fighting myself.

Time slowed down as the blaring sirens of the police vehicle became apparent to my ears again, getting louder and louder with each passing second. With all the strength I could muster, I pushed the thing off me and continued to run, shaking violently.

" _This is the Vale Police department. Stop or you will be shot!"_

I turned my gaze from the enforcers and looked to where I would run next, and…

Wait.

" _Dead end, suspect."_

Reality came back as the wall stood tall in front of me.

But… it couldn't end like this! It wouldn't!

With a silent confirmation between the officers, they trained their rifles onto the girl before them and held down the triggers, firing burst after burst of nickel and lead towards her.

Navy Arc died approximately on the sixteenth shot when her aura shut down completely and failed her, bullet holes shredding through muscle and skin with the ease of a hole puncher.

When the gunfire died down, the officers looked at each other and shared a silent confirmation.

Just another day in Faunus Town.

 **A/N: Alright, some new stuff. In an experimental format, of course. Please tell me if you thought that:**

 **what is this fucking stupid format, i'm confused. Stop switching POVs.**

 **It was alright.**

 **I researched a bit into muteness, and it turns out a good percentage of them choose not to speak, even if they can… Strange, but it inspired me to build further into the mute Neo subplot. If you guys don't know, Neo is actually getting a voice actor. Which is bad news… I hope they only use it in flashbacks, in case my prediction that her apparent inability to speak is caused from physical or mental trauma is correct.**

 **Anyways, please do not assassinate me for expressing my political opinions, I am Canadian and I will** _ **fucking**_ **apologize to you, motherfucker.**

 **Oh, and there's something important I learned in politics: if you repeat a lie three times, someone will believe it.**

 **Here we go: GARC is the best story ever.**

 **GARC is the best story ever.**

 **GARC is the best story ever.**

 **My story will become a great piece of fan fiction.**

 **My story will become a great piece of fan fiction.**

 **My story will become a great piece of fan fiction.**

 **You will review my story.**

 **You will review my story.**

 **You will review my story.**

 **Edit: I NEED TO STOP FUCKING WRITING DIALOGUE FOR NEO COME ON BRAIN SHE CAN'T TALK**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey, what's up people.**

 **I Eat Ass Thrice a Month here.**

 **So, after breaking my hand irl, I've spent a lot of time reconstructing the plotline and character developments in general, and I think I've hit a jackpot. This story will be under revision for a while.**

 **I promise I'll do it quickly, but nothing's guaranteed.**

 **I plan to change the themes around a little, as I believe the humour is… Let me say it's forced and not good. Jaune's character will be more defined. The humor will be there, yes, but it'll be reduced and better implemented. The new version will have more focus on character development, as well as a change of theme. Psychological thriller, adventure, *ahem* romance, with a bit of humor mixed in.**

 **Thank you for your patience,**

 **I Eat Ass Thrice a Month, signing off**


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